Vol 3 Chapter 5 (1/2)
Whether you can trust or not isn't a problem
The problem is whether you're betrayed or not
1
In conclusion, rappelling while carrying Hibackpack), and thewas sturdier than I expected It took a while because I had to protect my was-dislocated-just-now arm, but I was not hurt, and ere not attacked on the way, so this could only be categorized as a success After we landed on the ground, Hi she had used, but that apparently failed She had tied the string together too meticulously, she said
”These wires are rather useful You can use thes like traps”
”Hmm traps”
Cos like this, I had heard Stringmasters, wiremasters, I could not recall what they were called They were not hitmen, but these could be used as weapons Did that use the strings of a shamisen? Not that I really knew
”Wire -- I see, string Hey, Hime-chan”
”What yes?”
”If you use string like this, the sealed rooht?”
Hmm? Hime-chan tilted her head to the side
”A sealed room with thread and needle?”
”So that line Sealed room, but it was not a physically sealed-off sealed room There are always slits and holes Then even without entering the roo the string There was the ventilation shaft Hi like this, you could wrap it around the dean inside the rooht?”
”Impossible That's”
”No no, you can't know unless you try”
”I know Master, you're thinking positive about the wrong thing” Hi the string ”First, how did the suspect hang the dean's neck fron into the room”
”Ah, right”
In the first place, wrapping string around the dean's body means you have to enter the room once, anyways”
”Right, no, wait, hold on If there is a ventilation shaft, then it is not a sealed room If they enter from there and then leave from there”
”You can't go in I told you, right? The fan is nailed to the ceiling, so you can't enter, and you can't put it back when you're leaving Even if they were invited in, they can't lock the door from theor the ventilation shaft Jun-san's checked that much Didn't you notice?”
”Hmm”
I did not
In any case, that ood The palm-print lock was unmistakable (even that Jun-san had to resort to brute force to open it), so that meant the , or the ventilation shaft, but
”Any you know You can use this sort of string to slice up a person nice and easy, but in that case you'd have clean cuts You wouldn't end up with such rough edges”
Ahh Right, the weapon was a chainsaw If Aikawa-san decided as such, then that was probably correct Contractor, Aikawa Jun The nuit from me
”Chainsaw eh Huh Wait, Hi when I said it,but can you? Dice a hus cut, chop?”
”Yes It depends on the ht? It's the sa power to the minimal surface with the fastest speed over theharbors plenty of violence when it co a human body”
”Huhhh The saers”
”They're called wire sahen they're used as a weapon I learned in class String knife, steel string, hard string, and such assassination weapons, I guess Even newbies can cut off fingers as long as they follow instructions, and expert hands can dice a human with vinyl tape”
”Sounds like a a that Aikawa-san would like But would it not be faster to just cut so that troublesome? Not that I want to become Tamamo-chan”
”Indeed But unlike knives, these have other uses You can attack fro pulley force Like spider silk, a spider nest It's a pretty typical co being used Twisted Strands, and call the masters Strand Users, and such”
Strand users, eh You do hear of it a lot
”Nowadays anything that gets prefixed by true or practical never turns out well Gosh people fros”
Although I guess because they lived in an era where killing was a daily routine, they could not be helped, but there was no need to turn strings into weapons, was there?
”Indeed Of course, there're only a handful of people that can pull off such street-stunt, science fiction-esque tricks nowadays You can't learn it in an evening, and it's end As Master says, it's faster to stab them with a knife”
That hy normally you just use it for safety like we just did, Hiers
”Just a handful -- means they do exist?”
”Indeed This school has one too Yes -- called Zig Zag”[1]
”Zig Zag”
”Yes A third-year named shi+sei Yuma Not that anyone calls Yuihara-san Of course, the string used by Zig Zag is nothing like this, and is more serious”
”Strand but, it is a story that lacks realisht? If that person shows up?”
”I think it has more realism than detectives and sealed rooms At the very least, it exists, historically”
”That is a scary thought”
”A deht say?”
She said, and Hime-chan tucked the reels back into her pouchette ”Eek, it's stuck,” she started fretting But unrelated to her fretting, I found a new source of anxiety
What if that Zig Zag, shi+sei Yui and Saijou Tamamo, were to appear as an eneirl? That was not just a thought, because for as long as Hi would be an obstacle ould not be able to avoid
I would be forced to decide What to do It would be best to return to Aikawa-san's place ---- but we did not know if that Aikawa-san was still in the dean's room Then would it be better to try to escape with Hii?
”A tough question”
But in retrospect, that was irrelevant enough to not be a problem
Instead, I orried so much by that trivial issue -- that I hadabout shi+sei Yuma
As if she was talking about a proud Master, yet at the sanation, a paradoxical expression - if I had seen it, then perhaps soined shi+sei Yuma and Hime-chan's relationshi+p
But that was so that could not be taken back, --a failure
”Zig Zag that is a tough obstacle”
”Yes To be honest, I think all we can do is run aith Aikawa-san Zig Zag alears gloves on both hands, so it'll be easy to tell Strand Users have to wear gloves, or else their own fingers'll get cut off”
”I see So it is visibly obvious”
Gloves I just need to pay attention to that
”Ahh, and when it coirl -- Saijou Ta freshh School, and she's feared as Yamitsuki”[2]
”She did not seem like it”
”You shouldn't decide on appearance Saijou-chan was different from Hime-chan and was the hope of the academy Master was just unbelievably lucky back then”
”Lucky”
It was indeed a hair's difference If Hime-chan had not arrived, and if, afterwards my reaction had not landed perfectly
But perhaps, because of that, I had becoh to send a chill down my spine To be honest, that type of person, where you cannot discern what they are thinking, are worse for ist
”That Tamamo-chan should not normally appear for an incident like this But for her to appear, is probably related to Jun-san and was probably Hagihara-san's strategy, I think”
Battlefield level-up
”Even without Zig Zag, Hiies set up for Jun-san We should meet up with Jun-san as if our livestock depend on it, before she leaves without us”
Animal fanatic?[3]
”Youin two is not a bad strategy -- you can call Hi behind the opponent's back, too”
”But, that's to odangerous”
”Indeed This is definitely a case of allowing rest poor thinking Let us rely on the professional”
And then as we had walked a bit away froained some composure because there were less places for people to lay waiting in ambush, but I finally realized Hime-chan had just spoken about it ht about it i-chan were coi-chan know of the dean's death? shi+ogi-chan is a strategist, the tactician She is staff, not the top She must report to the dean every so often Even if indirectly, even if through the faculty rooi-chan and other students must have realized the truth
If they were to not have realized -- then soht be the suspect So picture -- was le, it would be someone from the faculty room or perhaps
Perhaps, a the students If there were to be
Who would be the most suitable for that task?
” Hii-chan?”
”Huh? Why're you beating about the bush?”
” No, I just have a passing interest You know, know thy enemy, know thy self, and triumph a hundred battles, said Cao Cao I think”
”Sun Tsu”
Hime-chan corrected me
”Master, you're pretty unlearned”
With a follow-up attack, too
”What are you saying You know about Fermi's paradox? I am actually the one that solved it”
”Is- is that so! I apologize for norant insolence! I bow to you!”
””
She believed me
” Anyways, I want to get soi-chan Can you tell me all you know?”
”Uht, you know, she's pretty strict Acrih you probably have to be, to be a strategist, but I feel like she still warps norard”
”Nothing is off-li results?”
”No, Hagihara-san herself never creates objectives She selects the ihara-san has no will of her own”
” I see Strategists cannot have their own goals, after all If shogi pieces had a will of their own, it would be annoying”
”In that sense, Hagihara-san, rather than being suited for being a strategist, youelse”
Huess, si of their own, i-chan are the same However, it seems her choices are even narrower than mine That was not her fault, but rather because she was locked away in this academy
The difference between soanization and someone that does not In that sense -- I beca the dean
”Ah, but just because she's a strategist doesn't ihara-san is a student of this academy, and we all are trained in self-defense”
”Yeah, my body knows that already”
”I guess the biggest thing about Hagihara-san would be kendo She's a kendo ni-dan”
”Ni-dan? That is pretty ordinary for this school”
”No no, when it comes to kendo you can't underestimate ni-dan They have always called it Kendo Saint Vulcan”
They do not
Hagihara shi+ogi -- Saijou Tamamo, and shi+sei Yu froht culture to the far-left martial arts --The road ahead seemed quite rocky If there was any place for opti and other such direct combat students probably lacked tactical minds
”But you know, shi+ogi-chan and Tamamo-chan and such -- if I were to have irls to be with”
Especially shi+ogi-chan, I was fond of her
”Master is soft toward ene salt to the enemy”
”That would be finishi+ng them off,” I shook i-chan and Tamamo-chan and Yuma-chan, they are all people”
”The are all different people”
Hi pessimistic Of course, her expression was that melancholic one
Once again, I looked at Hiinally, this had just been because Hime-chan wanted to quit this school, wanted to run away -- but did it make sense to blockade escape just to protect secrets?
Hime-chan called herself a failure, and I believed that, and Aikawa-san did not refute that -- but was it truly possible that Yukariki Ichihiest, was actually a nobody failure?
It was just a wild guess, but there may be another reason for why they obstructed Hiree For exae power, for instance In other words, the dean did not want to part with Hime-chan, for instance
That could be like Ya like shi+sei Yuma But to this point it seemed like Hime-chan did not have any direct combat skill -- if so, she would not have been captured so easily by the Strategist's fence But if you were to suggest she is a strategist or tactician like Hagihara shi+ogi, I would say no I would refute that clearly, as Hi me, lacked any sort of sense of reason
So a seven-colored Rubik's Cube Like a puzzle that had too many pieces and could not be completed Too much evidence, too many hints
Whatdid Hime-chan hold to this unrealistic acade, perhaps a ist or Ya
” Hmm”
Then, fro up with Aikawa-san, and were to be obstructed by Hagihara shi+ogi and shi+sei Yuers, then maybe Yukariki Ichihime's hidden, secret poould awaken and save us from the pinch situation
”Actually, Hime-chan was an ESPer!”
”W- what-! This is really a surprise! I was perfectly saved by this!”
”But I can't control this power ahh, Master!”
”What is this! My right hand is Hannibal! A green aura is s from my shoelaces!”
It appears I have no novelist talent
An e?
Leaving that aside, in any case, probably, Aikawa-san was hiding so from me And most likely, Hi plenty of things as well as I live, and regardless of who, I will probably never speak them Secrets are secrets because they are locked away And could it be wished, that secrets remain secrets, that lies remain lies, and all will end as such -- I hope
If I could, I wanted to end as an outsider I had no intention of abandoning that wish
As ere about to pass through a place that looked like a courtyard, s After Hi ithappened It appeared that I had tripped over a ball that people had forgotten to store away
”Jeez--”
But, just as I was about to pick up that ball, ing High School In this abnor ordinary as a ball that people had forgotten to store away actually exist--
I looked at the ball It was Saijou Tamamo's head
Jump up↑ Written 病蜘蛛 (Sick Spider)
Ju that she stabs in the darkness It's a pun though, in that normally if you say ”yamitsuki” you think of 病み付き, which means ”with illness” Draw conclusion as you will
Jump up↑ She meant lives
2
In the h-cut head in decapitated form
No matter how insanely insane my mind may be, I could not rerabbing that, and then ed The happening, the situation, I could not coure out the correct answer That which re fro lacked any expression and looked like she was just asleep, yet there was nothing below her neck--
”Careful!”
Hime-chan savedstruck like that by Hime-chan as e, my soul-less body was easily pushed aside, sio
And then that un arrow stuck into the ground
My body went below freezing and I iged Hi thud, thud into the ground behind us If I kept rolling like this they would be able to right their aio on the offensive
The first arroas fired from -- around there? Given the direction of the later arrows, I could , then I can read that, too While rolling, I grabbed a rock the size of a fist, and then changed direction Seeing a arrow land a bit off, I stood, and threw the rock where I predicted they would be At the saun attacks ceased
Eventually -- in the darkness, the figure of one girl faded in A slender for, black hair -- and the black sailor uniform