Vol 8 Chapter 5 (1/2)

Chapter 5

Miracles can easily happen anytiht when I was handed the results of the exa the year

“That wasn't a ently studied with me!” Ayaka said in a huff

It's true that I studied a lot during the teeks I was suspended fro to Hana, and since Ayaka had been suspended too, we piled up textbooks, notebooks and textbook guides on the wooden table in front of the kitchen's door, and started our study s that lasted for the whole fourteen days

“But with this we're both third years, I'lad! Noe can relax” Ayaka smiled broadly

“Relax? We still have a whole year left I don't know if h”

“It's okay!” Ayaka pattedMarch of next year, it will be alht?”

“No it won't!”

“But we're both in the saether? If you think about it, it's not like I require you to graduate, Fujishi+ma-kun”

“What?”

“Because, you see, with your talents you won't need to enter the university You can become a swindler, a yakuza, a public entertainer”

The way you're saying it sounds more like I don't have any talent at all

“We will have a special celebration in March, I' forward to that!”

Special celebration? What on earth is that?

Ever since that incident, Ayaka had been really cheerful and looked like she was having fun everyday, so I didn't ask her anything in particular

The reason why Ayaka and I were suspended froht people we had investigated for offering round The uproar that such a shocking incident caused didn't settle down for a -off period A war When the patrol cars caumi couldn't cover for us like they always did

I don't really knohat becai Junko, atteas smell and broke in to stop her After that, he rushed to the elementary school to talk with her son directly

Hiro-san told me a little theory:

“I think Iharagi Junko didn't knohat her son had been doing at all, neither about how Hakamizaka had told him to take care of the flowers nor that he had accepted money from the junkies”

I reed when her son came and asked me if I was ′shi+rou-san's friend′, not because she was afraid that her own cri out for the first time that her son had been in contact with criminals When Tomoki-kun said ′Mama scolded me a lot′, it wasn't because she forbid him to speak for her own sake, but for her child's After that, Iharagi Junko searched his son's bedroom, probably found evidence of his son's interactions with Hakaasawa, Oshi+ about her son's cri to coas

Poor Iharagi Junko was completely innocent after all Her relationshi+p with Hakamizaka was really just a florist-customer relationshi+p

But her very young child had becaht be the opposite Maybe Hakaht was frightening, but it did make sense

“It seems Tomoki-kun ordered the fertilizers with her mother's password, so it would have probably been discovered even if we didn't do anything”

“Chigasawa Teruhiko told hiht?”

“The order was placed under Chigasawa's bank account and with his mobile internet, but” Hiro-san smiled ironically “We can't knoho told how to do it to whoasawa for the things he needed There are lots of scary children in this world, after all”

But there's the possibility that it wasn't a sin That little boy didn't understand death He apparently thought that Hakae for the flowers to blooht now, to what kind of institution have they transferred hi him? What kind of words is he been showered with? I don't know

“In the end, as this all about?” Tetsu-senpai spat out by Hiro-san's side “Toshi+ And the other junkies What the hell did they want to do? Were they waiting for the flowers to bloo for the rawon the rests they had saved up? That's just plain idiotic Wasn't it obvious that they were going to die if they took that drug again? Who would ether anyway?”

“Because they were stupid, that's why” Hiro-san said indifferently “They were drug addicts You can't understand ent on inside their heads”

“I'm not satisfied with that!”

Tetsu-senpai hit his own legs over and over again I felt the same The questions I couldn't turn into words were like bones stuck in my throat, obstructed forever

February passed in the midst of a slippery numbness

Hirasaka-gumi's black-shi+rted men constantly showed up at Raenerally eat on credit, s with Ayaka(-neesan) and me, they would leave They never said a word about Yondaio to the office on the west gate side of the station

Not even once did I visit Toshi+-san at the hospital, either Ayaka went ht him ice cream from Hanamaru

“He doesn't talk at all Well, I don't say anything either”, Ayaka said

I didn't ask Ayaka anything, either Does she still not res? About the poppy flowers she had grown? My head says that those things don't ulfed by that silence after all

I didn't write a journal about the case Before now, I had recorded every case I had taken part as an assistant detective, but with this case, not a single word about the things I had been involved in would co

What was all this in the end? I thought as I looked up at the ceiling in front ofup Ayaka's painful memories, Toshi+-san was cornered on the abyss of the death for a second time, I was even suspended from school, and now that the case was finally over I didn't understand too much about it There wasn't a detestable opponent Shushuri was a seven-year-old child It really looked like like the work of an angel

What on earth was all this? I cursed at the cloudy sky froaps between the curtains What was theinvolved in all this? I knew that I was thinking like a brat That which we call ′ that takes for fros in this world have no

I tried to call Yondai the cellphone closed each time

I don't knohat to say I don't have any apologizing words, and I haven't done anything wrong in the first place Yondai, either He's the head of Hirasaka-gumi, and I'm Ayaka's friend, so ould obviously make each other bleed if we collided

No, it's not like Yondai sad Even if we said ere sworn brothers, he won't feel troubled if I'm not around

“Seeing you coot its tail burn bothersher Dr Pepper can “What's theo and bow your head to Yondaime′, or are you?”

“Th-that's”

That's kinda what I was thinking, actually I've been seen through I would have feltlike ′They're Alice orders, so it can't be helped′

“Really, there's a part of you that won't ever change”

The words Alice spoke while turning her gaze to the ceiling somehow sounded happier than usual I tilted my head

“In that case, you have no option but to wait”

I stared at Alice unusually kind expression

“For a ain?”

Alice's black hair swayed

“It's not that What you have to wait for is spring”

“Spring?” What's up with that?

“I'”

Alice's voice beca out for a lost sheep on a hill at sunset

“Because, for me, the case is not over yet”

“N-not over?”

I placed e of the bed and leaned over to Alice Her black hair scattered over the sheets and my hands

“Why did Hakareenhouse?”

Alice had once wondered that; a mystery that didn't look like one

“All the answers should be clear now Moreover, Ayaka probably doesn't know It's not that she forgot, she didn't know from the start For that reason, we can only wait”

And before long, spring finally arrived The second spring since I came to this city

The first Sunday of March after the end of the exams, I was called on the phone by Alice, so as soon as I finished ency When I opened the door, I was dumbfounded

“You're late! What took you so long? Wearing a kimono is really uncomfortable, so I want to finish this as soon as possible!”

Alice ju drop-dead gaudy white japanese clothes, with a pattern of the mythical Phoenix bird It suited her really well, and she looked like she was going to attend a photography event

“Eh, eeh a kimono?”

“Disregard that, let's go”

Hugging her teddy bear, Alice forcefully pushed ency

“Follow ency stairs

“Why are we going that way?”

“We're going to the rooftop”

The rooftop?

I went to this building's rooftop just once When ere going up the stairs that shts were cut off, and it became so dark that I almost couldn't see my own feet

“Hey, why are we going to the rooftop? Are we going to pick strawberries again? But it's not the season yet, is it?”

Alice stopped in front of the rooftop's door and turned around I have seen those eyes many times before They showed an extremely serious spirit, which looked like a bubble that would burst any moment

“I understood”

“Eh?”

“I understood everything”

Holding on to the railing, I went up two steps froained my breath

Understood? Is that about the case being over?

“I understood why Hakareenhouse”

I gulped down h because of the dust, and waited for the detective's next words

“Please, reo to M High School's greenhouse, fetch a report written by Ayaka, and pick up only the blue flowers”

“Well Yeah, he did say that”

“Didn't you find it strange? Why pick up the blue flowers only?”

“Eh?”

“The alkaloid from the poppies were harvested from their fruits, after the floithered If they plucked the flowers as soon as they harvested, they couldn't get the ingredients for the narcotics”

I gasped It was indeed as she said Then, as thebehind what Toshi+-san said?

“Then—Then why did he use Ayaka?”

“It was for Shushuri”

I stared at Alice's face sunk in the very diht

“For Shushuri? For Tomoki-kun? What does Tomoki-kun have to do--”

“Shushuri wasn't the name of a person”, Alice said I was lost for words When her hand turned the knob, streaks of light split the darkness Bright rectangles spread, and Alice's outlines were sed by the backlighting Receiving the fragrant wind in my face, I felt dizzy

The instant I stepped on the rooftop, I held my breath

The supernatant greenery all around me were pure white flowers, flowers, flowers--

Poppy flowers, growing thick on the soil of nu up at the sun, bloorance filledand uneven, and what really stood out about those floas that said petals spread widely, dangling left and right

Just like wings

The wind boisterously blew on those wings Light scattered around In the middle of that dream-like scenery, Alice turned around with a smile

“Shushuri,” Alice said “hat Haka for, and also what those foolish deceased aiting for”

The name of the flower Alice's whispers slipped into the sounds of the wings and the wind

Right, I rehtly reddish leaves These are the flowers that Toh they still hadn't bloomed back then