Inuyama Heita looked at Qian Xiaoyi in disbelief, unable to believe he had just told her the truth!
"Please don't joke around!" Miss Suzuki replied with a frown. "I'm not some idiot with a chuunibyou complex! Please don't fob me off with some story meant to fool children! That's not scientific at all."
"Yeah, yeah~" Qian Xiaoyi said with an awkward grin. "The atmosphere here seemed a little tense, so I thought I'd crack a little joke~ So, Miss Suzuki, what do you think the truth is? I imagine you already have an answer in mind, seeing as you've been eavesdropping behind the door for quite a while."
Miss Suzuki adjusted her glasses and said, "I don't know what your motives are, but you're definitely doing something that's bad for the Lucky Mutual Aid Society, right? That's why you had Inuyama-kun pretend to be tricked by them, then infiltrate the organization to look for information. But I still want to ask: what exactly are you trying to do? Why did Inuyama-kun hire you? As far as I know, agencies like yours don't come cheap. Inuyama-kun, where did you get all that money?"
Inuyama Heita stammered under her questioning, so Qian Xiaoyi answered for him. "He hired me because I know his family's adults. We're good friends, so you could say I'm something of an elder to him. As for why he hired me... You'd already heard that Inuyama-kun was being extorted by some thugs, hadn't you? He originally wanted me to deal with that, but as you know, it turned out not to be a simple case of extortion. It was a trap set by the Lucky Mutual Aid Society, because those people had their eyes on what remained of the Inuyama family's assets. To get rid of them, I had Inuyama-kun pretend to fall into their trap and gather information from the inside. Otherwise, those people would cling to us like gum stuck to the soles of our shoes—utterly disgusting and impossible to shake off. Your family is one of their victims too, so you should understand."
"So that means..." Miss Suzuki's eyes gradually lit up. "You're looking for evidence that the Lucky Mutual Aid Society is committing crimes!"
"Yeah, you could put it that way." Qian Xiaoyi nodded. Inuyama Heita breathed a sigh of relief. She believed them; they'd finally managed to fool her.
"That's great!" Miss Suzuki excitedly pressed both hands against the table and said angrily, "Count me in. I've had enough of that awful man in the suit! If this keeps up, my mom will squander everything we have."
"Huh?!" Inuyama Heita froze.
Hearing her words, Qian Xiaoyi didn't turn her down outright. Instead, she asked, "Miss Suzuki, you're certainly enthusiastic, but with something like this, having more people isn't necessarily better. So, what can you do to help bring down this awful cult?"
Miss Suzuki adjusted her glasses and answered, "When I was outside the door just now, I heard you recording information about the senior members. I think I can help with that. After all, I'm one of those so-called senior members myself. My mom used to suck up to them, so I know the identities of some of them."
Qian Xiaoyi shook her head, then said, "That's helpful, but it's not enough on its own. That information is easy to get. Inuyama-kun could learn it all just by attending a few more gatherings."
Miss Suzuki continued, "I'm not finished. Inuyama-kun may already have told you about my family. My mom is a devoted believer in the Lucky Mutual Aid Society, and she often talks with other members. The members aren't as harmonious as they seem on the surface; they have their own selfish motives too. Everyone wants to become a senior member, and they even compare how much property their families have donated to the society. As far as I know, to join the Lucky Mutual Aid Society, you have to voluntarily hand over one-twentieth of your monthly income. And that's just the minimum..."
"One-twentieth?!" Inuyama Heita furrowed his brow. It didn't seem like much, but with enough members, it would add up to a sizable sum.
Qian Xiaoyi smiled derisively. "That's about average for donations to religious groups. As far as I know, some religious organizations in Tokyo even charge membership dues amounting to one-tenth of your income. It's practically the medieval tithe."
Miss Suzuki said angrily, "They do nothing but scam people and still get so much money. It's completely unreasonable! And my mom keeps wanting to sell off our family's belongings and hand over the proceeds... I'm already a senior member now. My mom was really happy, and I thought that would be the end of it, but she's gotten even worse and wants to pay even more in dues. If I don't stop her, she'll sell everything we own. So I want to help too. My mom has the contact information for a lot of members, and they often get together in private. I can find out some things from them."
"That's a good enough reason." Qian Xiaoyi nodded. "Then welcome to the team, Miss Suzuki. Let's skip the pleasantries and get right to work. We'll pick up where we left off. Heitaro, keep playing the recording and collect the identities of all the senior members."
"Ah... all right." Inuyama Heita still had some doubts about Miss Suzuki joining them, but he didn't show it. He obediently placed his phone on the table and tapped the play button.
"Great! Let's get to work." Full of enthusiasm, Miss Suzuki opened the juice on the table and took a long gulp.
The three of them began checking the information in the recording, one person at a time. Besides recording the gathering, Inuyama Heita had also found an excuse to take a group photo with everyone using his phone at the end of it, so they wouldn't miss anyone.
"That should just about do it..." A little while later, Qian Xiaoyi picked up a pen and circled several names in the notebook where they'd recorded the information. Then he nodded with satisfaction. "These are the ones."
The two high schoolers leaned in to look. Inuyama Heita asked curiously, "Who are they?"
Qian Xiaoyi replied, "Leaving aside the senior members who are simply fat sheep with plenty of money to squeeze out of them, these are the people we should really be paying attention to."
Miss Suzuki saw that she was on Qian Xiaoyi's list of "fat sheep" too, and the corner of her mouth twitched. She might be a senior member, but she wasn't the fat sheep—her foolish mom was.
Inuyama Heita nodded. "I think I get it. These people don't have much money to squeeze out of them, so from a purely practical standpoint, they must be very useful to the Lucky Mutual Aid Society. Otherwise, Matsui wouldn't have brought them in as senior members."
"Exactly." Qian Xiaoyi tapped a few names on the list with his pen. "As a small, up-and-coming religious group, they'll put every penny to good use in the early stages as they try to expand their influence. Maria, the owner of the Blue Note bar... He's responsible for providing a venue for their gatherings and was one of the members who joined the Lucky Mutual Aid Society early on, one of its first supporters. Hongo Daisuke, a thug, was probably someone Matsui invested in to make connections with the underworld. He may have been the one who brought in the two thugs who extorted Heitaro. Next is Mitarai, a cleaner at a hospital. His role is unclear. Then there's Kuroda, a truck driver who only recently became a senior member, and..."
By the time they had marked down all those people, it was nearly dark. Since Miss Suzuki lived quite far away, she headed home first. She promised to look into whether the Lucky Mutual Aid Society was evading taxes; she suspected those people would never give up most of the money they squeezed out of members to the tax authorities, so a little digging would surely turn up something. After she left, only Qian Xiaoyi and Inuyama Heita remained in the office.
"Phew~ That troublesome girl finally left." Watching Miss Suzuki disappear into the distance outside the window, Qian Xiaoyi turned to him. "Now, let's get down to business. Heitaro, tell me what Matsui had you do after he took you into the private room."
Before you continue