August 31, 10:00 p.m. Advanced Nurturing High School boys' dormitory.
Kanzaki Toru folded the last clean summer uniform and placed it in the wardrobe. Then he sat on the edge of his bed, picked up his phone, and went through all the unread messages that had accumulated over summer break. The scheduled messages signed "&" had never stopped arriving throughout the vacation, appearing punctually in the early morning every few days. Their contents ranged from updates on Old System clauses to reminders about filing Uninhabited Island data reports, to the call number of a reference book on Sakagami's private bookshelf. On the night before school began, every one of them found its proper place. Not a single message had been unnecessary. The latest unread message contained only one line: "The & index is complete. Happy summer vacation. &." It had been sent at 9:59 that evening.
He archived the messages one by one into an encrypted folder, storing them alongside the comparison records for perjured testimony from last semester's Disciplinary Committee hearing, the signature pages from cross-class group reports, and photographs of the Silent Offense and Defense Project's fluorescent tube. Then he opened his voicemail inbox. Inside were Ishizaki's fragmented voice message sent after the Uninhabited Island storm, and Ryuen's brief voice message sent after the exhibition match. Ishizaki's had been sent at dawn just after the storm passed. His voice cut in and out, but every fragment carried the faint clink of an aluminum sports drink can striking stone as he set it beside the distiller. Ryuen's had been sent on the night the exhibition match ended. In the background, an old fan creaked as it turned in an empty classroom on the third floor of the Old School Building. The fan spun more than a dozen times before