Author: Inaida Sou
Translator: Kei of ChocoCats

○ 313 DAYS AGO

My brother may be involved in the criminal case. Despite my anxiety, I finished the work given to me from the reading session with Yukari-chan and Iwai at home last weekend.

But as if to remind me of the reality, my brother wandered out of the house at midnight last night and went somewhere.

I thought of following him, but my brother only went out for about 15 minutes. It will be difficult to go back to my room before my brother comes back, so I stayed. Maybe my anxiety grew particularly because today’s after-school council meeting was depressing.

“Hey, what are you doing absent-mindedly?”

When I was lying down my head on the desk, thinking about my brother’s midnight walk, I was hit by a rolled-up clear file. There is only one person who does this to me. When I lunged at Iwai’s torso, who came to my classroom during the break, he immediately surrenders.

“Wa-wait, don’t fight~”

“It’s self-defence.”

“But it’s obviously overkilling~”

Yukari-chan stood between me and Iwai, panicking.

“That’s because he comes all the way to here just to hit me.”

“We-well, let’s talk with words rather than fists? And, Iwai-kun, you are also wrong, you can just tap on Mai-chan’s desk right…?”

“But it’s very rare that she’s like this. She usually talks about her ‘Onii-chan’ all the time.”

“Do-don’t say it like that… recently Mai-chan is just feeling out of the box…”

Recently, I always arrived at school before my brother.

Whenever I’m moving class, I always make sure to pass in front of my brother’s classroom, wear a hat with an arrow stuck in my head, or suddenly show him a bridge. Of course, with my recent behaviours, people around me start to think I’m an eccentric after summer vacation. All students except Yukari-chan and Iwai seems to be thinking “I don’t know how to deal with her” and I was treated like an oddball.

“I was curious, what did your brother do to you, Kurobe?”

“Why?”

“Because, every time you saw him, you seem threatening him.”

“I’m not threatening him, I’m just providing him surprises, to make his day fun.”

Iwai looked at me suspiciously while shaking his head. I looked back at him.

“By the way, Iwai, why are you—”

“Attention, is there anyone who passed by the Hoshimifushi neighbourhood on the way to school?”

A teacher entered the classroom impatiently. Even though it’s break time now, a tense atmosphere flows in the classroom. Hoshimifushi is a forest located nearby school, but it’s on the back and surrounding the mountain. That’s why students rarely use that route to go to school. I can even see the trees of Hoshimifushi forest from the corridor’s window and feels I can reach them if I stretch my hand.

“Isn’t Suzuki live in that area?”

“No way, I live in Kara District.”

“Don’t joke around. No one, right?”

The classroom calms down with the power of teacher speech. While everyone is looking at each other, the teacher runs into the hallway.

“What is happening?”

“Wait, Yukari will find out what happened in Hoshimifushi now.” (Yukari always talk in 3^rd person, and I find it’s cute, so for now on I will keep it like this. I will also revise the older chapter where she talks with ‘I’ and change it to ‘Yukari’)

After saying that, Yukari began to type and swipe through her pink smartphone. It is a rule that smartphones can be operated only during breaks, and it is prohibited to use them on campus area after school. That’s why everyone is starting to search the internet. Even though Yukari-chan seems to be quicker, she couldn’t say anything after she found what she wants.

“What’s wrong?”

“A corpse was found. A girl. Without wrist…”

“What…”

Somehow, I could hear the sound of a helicopter. It may be coming to investigate. Everyone headed to the windows in the hallway all at once to see. Only I, Yukari-chan, and Iwai were left behind in the empty classroom.

“Actually, I…”

Iwai opened his mouth to cut off the sudden silence.

“Last night, from my room…”

I don’t want to hear it, I thought silently. But Iwai looks straight into my eyes.

“I saw your brother walking towards the scene of the incident.”

Although I was strangely convinced of his remark, my heart keeps denying it. Feeling like I’m losing my foothold, I shook my head to regain my composure.

“My brother won’t do something childish like that…”

—He will do something more brutal.

I’m sure he will. But my intuition has no meaning, let alone confirmation. Just like the camera. I felt that my brother had something to do with that, even if he wasn’t doing anything. And it just made endless anxiety grow bigger in my chest.

◇

T/N: I’m very sorry about the instability of my updates… I fell asleep last night after coming back from work and I was finally able to do some translating on Sunday afternoon (I slept like log for about 14 hours…) I hope I can update the second chapter after this fingers crossed

Hope you enjoy!

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