The Eccentric, the Beauty, and the Detective: Kiriki Junka's Mystery Log Volume 2 Chapter 17

“Nice to meet you, Hatanaksensei. My name is Sannomiya Eiji, and I just transferred in.”

She smiled without a care.

“So I've heard. Nice to meet you, Sannomiykun.”

“So who broke that leg?”

Junka and I looked over at them. Hatanaksensei froze.

“Why… would you say that somebody did it?”

“Normally if people hurt themselves they'll at least mention how,” he explained simply, “Something like ‘I fell,” or, ‘I slammed into something.'”

A look of understanding came over her face.

“Ah, so that's it. Well, I fell down the stairs in the school last week. That's how I broke my leg.”

“I see, on the stairs. So who pushed you?”

Hatanaksensei maintained her smile, but the time seemed to leave her behind.

“W-whatever could you be on about? As if that could happen.”

“You couldn't answer that right away, eh? You really were pushed, weren't you? So was it someone affiliated with the school, or somebody unrelated?”

“That's enough of this!” she suddenly cut him off, “I have another class to teach, and you have another one to attend. Isn't that right, Sannomiykun? Please return to your classroom.”

“I… okay.”

He looked quite down as he packed up his school supplies and we headed out of the room.

“What do you think, Junka?” I asked.

“He's got an interesting point of view, that Sannomiya. If it wasn't for his personality, I'd want to recruit him…”

“It just doesn't stop.”

Junka yawned.

“I'm not too good at questioning like that, so if we got him, it'd fill a gap, but… would Iidsan and Tatsuno-san be okay with it?”

“Yeah, it might bother them.”

Hatanaksensei had gone to the prep room and so we returned to homeroom without asking anything of her ourselves.

After school, Nao, Junka, and I all stayed behind to pointlessly gossip under the guise of a meeting of the detective association. The main topic of trying to recruit Sannomiya Eiji wasn't going to come up until Hinata arrived. As far as topics were concerned, anything went.

“It looks like you're quite enjoying our association, eh Iidsan?”

Junka was writing “meat” with a washable marker on his own forehead while looking in a mirror; reasons unknown. Nao nodded.

“Well, I mean, you and Suzaku-kun didn't rat me out about the broken chalk to Miyako-sensei. Also, I like the activities. They're unique.”

I was drinking out of a milk box.

“You're right about unique.”

“Anyway…” Junka cut in, having transformed himself in to Muscle Man, but still calmly discussing things normally.

It really bothered me.

“Luck has been a big element in our being able to solve all our cases so far… that and everyone's cooperation, of course. But, there's no guarantee that it'll always work out like that. Sometimes effort alone is not enough to resolve an investigation, and who knows what'll happen. I'm not a happy camper when I imagine that possibility.”

Nao put a hand on his shoulder with a smile.

“There you go again. As if there's a mystery you couldn't solve!”

“I'm not so sure about that.”

I checked my watch. Homeroom was about half an hour ago, and we were the only three in the room.

“Tatsuno-san's late. She even said she didn't have newspaper club activities today. Should we check up on her?”

“I'll go.”

Nao nimbly took flight like a sparrow, departing the class. Junka and I watched her go.

“Energetic as always, that Iidsan.”

Junka placed his head on the arms he'd folded on the desk.

“But, I'm tired… last night I stayed up way too late playing board games by myself, and slept in.”

How sad…

“I think I'm going to nod off for a bit. Wake me up when they get here, Rouji-kun.”

After he'd finished his request, Junka lurched once, and fell into dreamland. He must've really been tired.

The room was warm with the July heat, but a dry breeze flowing in through the window and out into the hall kept things from feeling unpleasant. I stood and walked to the window. Club activities of all kinds were taking place on the school grounds below. Shouts came from the baseball and tennis clubs, and the track club was pole vaulting. I pondered how different my school life would have been had I entered some other club.

Feeling sentimental, I turned around. Our ringleader Junka was sound asleep with “meat” written plainly on his forehead. I chortled. For the moment, I was satisfied with the detective association's club activities. Was that not enough?

That was when Nao returned, a hand on the doorpost, breathing heavily. She'd run back, it seemed. Junka, having woken up, looked around half in a daze, as I locked eyes with Nao.

“What's up? Where's Tatsuno-san?”

“She's… she's….”

Nao pressed a hand to her heart, and desperately calmed her breathing. After a big gulp, she was finally able to speak.

“It's bad! Hinatchan… Hinatchan's….”

I could tell that things weren't in a pleasant state.

“Calm down. What's happened to Tatsuno-san?”

Nao raised her head, tears flying.

“She got shoved down the stairs! She was just taken to the hospital!”

I stood stock still in shock.

“What?”

“Woooaah!” Junka cried, choosing that particular time to act like Muscle Man.

After that, we got the basics of the situation from the teachers in the staff room.

It seemed that Hinata had been on day duty and was going down the stairwell from the second to the first floor to throw out the trash. That was where somebody had pushed her from behind. Before she knew what hit her, she was already falling headlong down the stairs. About three minutes later, she'd been discovered by Sannomiya Eiji and Kanno Yuuki. They had been on their way back after finishing up the business of transferring schools in the staff room. Eiji had nursed Hinata as she lay clutching her shoulder in pain while Yuuki had the teachers contact the hospital.

“It all happened in an instant, eh?” is how Aoyagi Tatsu-sensei, the teacher in charge of class 1, 1 put it.

Hinata had been driven to Shibuyamadai Hospital by Kitakami Kouji-sensei, whereas Eiji and Yuuki had already gone home.

Since the hospital was nearby, we decided to pay Hinata a visit. It was still light out, and we fought a spirit of unease as we rattled along in the bus.

“It's not serious, is it?”

Nao was half crying, and clutching my arm.

The best I could offer, I didn't think was going to help, “She was clutching her shoulder, but… it's probably fine. For now we at least know her life isn't in danger.”

Junka was biting his nails.

“To think this happened to one of our own! One of the detective association! Unforgivable. I'll catch the culprit for sure.”

Shibuyamadai Hospital was a towering four story, white building. There was a pharmacy and a convenience store and a lot of parking space. We showed our student handbooks, filled in some paperwork, and were on our way.

Hinata's room was number 8 on the second floor. We knocked on the door, each with his own set of worries.

“Come in.”

Surprisingly, Hinata's voice was calm. Nao opened the door, and walking toward the screen, we found Hinata sat up in her bed.

“You all came to pay me a visit, I see.”

She smiled at us with bandages on her head and arm, wearing her hospital gown.

“Hinatchan!”

Nao was crying, but still wasn't about to grab onto Hinata, so she simply rushed to her side.

“How's your arm? Are you okay?”

“I'm fine, thanks to you.”

Nao fell to her knees there, crying.

“Thank goodness… I'm so glad…”

Translator's Note:

My dynamic translation experiment continues as I occasionally get around to this.

Editor's Note:

I actually caught one of my mistakes in translating this one. Since I finished it ages ago, and finally got around to editing it now, I've had sufficiently fresh eyes to actually take a look at what I've done.

An editor would be an even fresher pair of eyes, though.

Chapter end