Kanzaki Toru zoomed in on the photo Sakura had sent him as far as it would go. The outer wall of the Old School Building, with a figure climbing over it. The photo had been taken at 7:12 p.m. last night, when dusk was settling and the streetlights had just come on. The resolution was high enough that, when enlarged, he could see the person looking back over their shoulder—not a full face, just a glimpse from the side and behind. That angle had avoided every security camera, but not Sakura's camera, set up at the edge of the rooftop.
Sakura Airi stood at the other end of the rooftop, clutching her camera, her fingers trembling slightly. "I was trying to photograph the night herons on the high wall after sunset. I only realized I'd caught... this person when I got back and sorted through the pictures." Her purple eyes looked especially uneasy in the fading light. "He's from Class C, Ishizaki Daichi, right?"
"That's right." Kanzaki Toru enlarged the area around the person's shoulder. There was a faint stain on the inside of the uniform sleeve, like a smear from red brick dust. The same fine dust was embedded in the edge of the Old School Building's windowsill and between Ishizaki's fingers. "He wasn't trying to get expelled. He was looking for something."
"What?"
Kanzaki Toru didn't answer. He looked toward the window on the third floor of the Old School Building, nearest the pipe Ishizaki had climbed. It belonged to a storeroom adjoining the room where the problem files had been sealed away last term. Ryuen had probably sent Ishizaki to look for some original interview record that hadn't yet been destroyed. But Kanzaki didn't plan to tell Sakura all the details. He simply transferred the photo to his device.
"For now, don't tell anyone about this photo."
Sakura nodded without asking why. A few petals blew through the railing and landed on her hat brim. She didn't brush them away.
On the way down from the rooftop, she paused at the stairwell entrance. "Kanzaki." She called after him, choosing her words carefully. "Manabe didn't kick my chair today. But I don't know if she's just waiting for the next chance."
Kanzaki Toru turned around and waited for her to finish.
"When I used to run into people like that, I'd keep hiding and wouldn't tell anyone. But things are different now—I can keep reporting it through Karuizawa's channel and write down each time it happens."
He told her that was good, then held open the door to the corridor for her. She walked a few steps ahead of him, her hat brim resting firmly over her shoulder-length black hair. Her pace wasn't fast, but every step was steady.
Back in his dorm room, Kanzaki Toru put the photo of Ishizaki climbing the wall and the screenshot of the anonymous warning in the same encrypted folder. He named it with just two words: "The Snitch." The photo had been taken last night, and the anonymous warning had arrived around the same time. Either the same person had seen Ishizaki's movements, or someone else had seen Sakura photographing that corner.
He called Horikita Suzune.
"Ishizaki climbed over the wall outside the third floor of the Old School Building last night. He didn't report it, and there's no blind spot in the surveillance. I received a photo and an unsigned warning. The two signals arrived almost at the same time. One more question—do you think Ryuen knows Ishizaki's been investigating the old files on his own?"
There was a brief silence on the other end. "If he knew, Ishizaki wouldn't be sitting calmly in class today. So he doesn't know yet."
"Then the snitch isn't one of Ryuen's people."
"It could be a third party." Horikita's voice lowered. "You received Sakura's photo, and the warning arrived last night too. There's a time difference between the person taking the photo and the person giving the warning, but they're connected to the same location. If there are three parties involved, someone is watching not only Ishizaki but also how you respond."
A blurry smile flashed through Kanzaki Toru's mind. Not Ryuen. Not Ishizaki. Not anyone he'd marked as an opponent. It belonged to someone who'd been kind to everyone since the start of the school year, and had never shown a weakness to anyone.
"I'll look into the new lead on my end," he said.
After ending the call with Horikita, he opened the Goddess Illustrated Handbook. Sakura Airi's favorability remained steady at seventy. After "actively documenting threats" and "cooperating in evidence preservation," a new tag had appeared in her status bar: Eyes of Trust: actively helps you secure key evidence. Karuizawa Kei's Perception Resonance tag was glowing, which meant she was currently in some group, rapidly sorting out friend from foe and filtering out the noise for him. Shiina Hiyori's Silent Archive continued to operate, piecing together all the written information there, item by item, along a timeline. And at the center of the coldly glowing page at the end of the handbook, not yet fully unlocked, a line of text appeared that he'd never seen before: "Information network taking shape. Strategic-level entry about to unlock."
He closed the handbook, lay down on his dorm bed, and stared at the strip of light leaking through the gap in the curtains onto the ceiling. The snitch. Someone was trying to stop Ishizaki from finding what he was looking for. And while stopping Ishizaki, someone was also warning him: be careful. Did the person who'd blocked Ishizaki from climbing the wall and sent the anonymous warning want to protect the secret from back then, or were they trying to keep the wrong people from getting caught up in it again? He had to find the record Ishizaki had missed outside the third floor of the Old School Building before Ryuen did.
Night deepened. He sat up, opened his device, and submitted a request through the backup application channel for the sports Equipment Room to inspect the Old School Building's fire safety equipment early the next morning. He signed it as a temporary volunteer helping Hamaguchi organize the sports field. He'd already figured out the approval checklist for this route while checking Sakagami's teacher records. As long as he chose an inconspicuous time slot, the grade-level office wouldn't flag it for special attention.
Then he closed his eyes. In his dream, the fluorescent lights on the Old School Building's ceiling flickered on and off. An old key Shiina had lent him was in the file cabinet lock, its handle warmed by his body heat. A shadow silently glided past the end of the corridor, leaving behind a blurry smile and a folder that always tilted left, no matter how he tried to straighten it. He knew that one more step forward would bring the answer about the snitch out of the shadows. This step was no longer just the final move in a battle of wits; it was also a decisive test of himself as the White Room's greatest creation.
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