Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, library.
Amasawa Reigetsu.
He had appeared in Ryuen Kakeru's field of vision almost out of nowhere, and the first time they met, he'd hit Ryuen with a big one.
Vice president, huh... I wonder how he feels about Class A.
After all, he hadn't shown his face during the first month, and the information they had on him was scarce. Either one of Class A's leaders was his puppet, or he simply didn't care about Class A.
Still, this was a good chance to test him.
"Who are you?"
Amasawa Reigetsu's words stunned everyone.
Seeing the people around them standing there with their jaws on the floor, Morishita Ran and Amasawa Reigetsu were both baffled. Was the guy across from them someone they were supposed to know?
The guy's here.
"Class C. Ryuen Kakeru..."
Dragon Boy felt his temple throbbing. He had a bad feeling about this...
"Sorry about that, Ryuen. Our Morishita really has terrible manners. How about I give you a five-yuan coupon as an apology?"
Amasawa Reigetsu was at a bit of a loss himself, but since Sis Ran had spoken, he could only try to smooth things over.
"Are you making fun of me?"
Ryuen Kakeru felt the other guy had no intention of speaking with him at all. He finally understood that Amasawa hadn't taken him seriously in the slightest.
"Please don't argue in the library, Amasawa from Class 1-A, Ryuen."
Amasawa Reigetsu: Holy crap, I'm so done for!?
Shiina Hiyori unleashed her domain expansion, "Library Barrier," forcibly stepping in to put an end to their probing—or rather, Ryuen Kakeru's one-sided probing.
"Please don't get any strange ideas about our Rei, Ryuen."
It was Sakayanagi Arisu's voice.
With the two highest-ranking women from Class A and Class C stepping in at the same time, everyone had no choice but to head back to their own business.
All right, break it up. Boring. I want to see blood everywhere!
Just as everyone turned their attention back to their books, Morishita Ran noticed...
Sakayanagi Arisu was one thing, but why was Shiina Hiyori walking toward Amasawa Reigetsu too...? Her gut told her that if she stayed, what came next would be even more dangerous than sending Albert off to grow cotton!
Sis Ran was just gonna go all "Ruda" on you—
Tokyo's rainy season always seemed to arrive without warning. Fine strands of rain formed an invisible net, shrouding the buildings of Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School.
The top floor of the library was rarely visited. The quiet atmosphere that resulted made it Shiina Hiyori's regular haunt. She loved the silence, the faint sound of turning pages, and, more than anything, the subtle scent of old paper and dust.
Rain pattered outside the window. Shiina Hiyori went to a seat by the window and led the man and woman behind her over to sit down.
"We meet again, Mr. Mystery."
Shiina Hiyori turned to look at Amasawa Reigetsu. She seemed completely unconcerned by Sakayanagi Arisu following them, and called him affectionately by the nickname she'd given him.
Shiina Hiyori could feel Sakayanagi Arisu's scrutinizing gaze. Meeting that gaze, as if it could see straight through people, she instead puffed out her chest.
After all, this was her "domain," where her spells were guaranteed to hit.
Sakayanagi Arisu walked straight to the seat opposite Shiina Hiyori and sat down gently, leaning her black cane against the table. Whether by design or not, the side bearing Amasawa Reigetsu's name faced Shiina Hiyori.
"The books here seem more interesting than I expected."
Sakayanagi spoke softly, but her voice carried clearly to Shiina.
"Okay, okay, could you two stop acting out a love triangle? Shiina nearly figured out my identity when she saw me today, and you two seem pretty close, huh?"
Two women were a show all on their own, and with a man sitting right there, Amasawa Reigetsu couldn't stand watching them bandy around their cryptic metaphors any longer. He decided to throw a rotten tomato onto the stage.
"I didn't give away any information about you, Rei-kun. Shiina's just very perceptive. I hadn't even said anything, and she knew it all just from one look."
Sakayanagi Arisu put on an expression of tearful innocence. And the truth was, as the one on the defensive, she really couldn't hide her feelings for Amasawa Reigetsu—
This was too much//
Amasawa Reigetsu: Mystery solved. If you call her that, even Ayanokoji Kiyoko would lose her composure!?
"I'm just really curious to know more—more about Mr. Mystery."
A fervent passion shone in Shiina Hiyori's eyes. Her pupils even transformed into hearts.
At the same time, Sakayanagi watched Amasawa Reigetsu's reaction with interest... Wait, something was off. Normally, wouldn't Alice have immediately bared her teeth and guarded what was hers?
The Library Barrier was terrifying indeed?!!
"Shiina's first-stage deductions—all correct. Great success. Congratulations. So, I'll give you a reward."
Amasawa Reigetsu leaned against the table, half-standing. He sat neither beside Sakayanagi Arisu nor beside Shiina Hiyori.
"There are people in this world with supernatural abilities."
Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, student dormitory.
Shiina Hiyori pushed open the dorm-room door, resting her fingertips lightly on the lock. With a soft click, she slipped inside and quickly locked the door behind her.
The literary girl who usually liked being alone and gave off a soft, gentle air now had an unusually bright, feverish look in her eyes.
She didn't turn on the lights. Instead, guided by the faint moonlight coming through the window, she went straight to her desk.
She pressed the desk lamp switch. Warm yellow light swallowed some of the darkness, revealing one corner of the dorm room's secrets.
The wall opposite the bed was covered in photographs, packed tightly together. They all featured the same person—
Amasawa Reigetsu.
From the first time she'd met Amasawa in the library onward, every item connected to him had been placed on the desk.
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. It was the first book Amasawa Reigetsu had talked about with her.
Then the second, the third... They'd talked about twenty-five books that day, and Shiina Hiyori had stacked them all on the desk in order.
The crystal ball from the library, the riddles Amasawa had told her, copied onto sticky notes, samples of shoeprints left on the floor Amasawa had walked across that day, and fabric from clothes he'd touched while they were talking...
And most important of all, Amasawa Reigetsu's hair and eyelashes...
The photos on the wall included every picture of him that had appeared in publicly available media before she'd met him: at the opening ceremony, in the background of a couples' photo, and the ones she'd secretly taken herself in the hallway, library, and classroom...
The top of the bedside table had been cleared completely, with only an elegant photo frame on it. In the frame, Amasawa Reigetsu tilted his head slightly. His gray eyes, carrying their trademark languor and arrogance, seemed to stare coldly through the glass at the room's occupant. Shiina Hiyori reached out a finger and gently stroked the glass, nearly entranced, her gaze full of reverence.
Shiina Hiyori took out a sticky note and a pen, and wrote "supernatural abilities" on it.
"Mr. Mystery... Hah..."
The desk lamp went out, and darkness swallowed the room's secrets once more.