Who Killed Cock Robin (of the Rocky Shores)?
One day, after class, a mysterious package arrived at the student council room. Sagara Sousuke looked down at it with his usual sullen expression.
The scene that unfolded was common enough: he scrutinized the package, staring at it hard enough to burn holes in it. According to the label, it had been sent from the Daiku Island branch of Maryu Middle School in Kumamoto Prefecture—a school he’d never heard of before. It was made of Styrofoam and about the size of a large shoe box. It was also surprisingly heavy, almost as if there was water inside.
Sousuke was unaware of any such thing having ever been sent to the student council before. He was the only one in the room at the moment, yet he knew it would be dangerous to simply open the box. There was no guarantee that it didn’t contain a powerful liquid binary explosive.
What to do with it, then? he wondered.
The path ahead was clear: he should take it out to a safe place on the school grounds, far away from anything important, and test it himself. He could open a small hole with a drill and insert a fiberscope. If it seemed likely that the contents were a bomb, he could detonate it.
But if the person who’d made the bomb was clever, even that small amount of investigation could prove deadly.
Yes. If it were me...
The sender might have pressurized the box. One small hole could then cause the internal pressure to plummet, which would trigger the bomb. Such a thing could be easily rigged with just a carbonated drink, aluminum foil, and common electronic parts and chemicals.
Yes, it’s too dangerous to investigate. My only course of action, then...
Having come to his usual conclusion, Sousuke was about to take the package outside, when—
“H... Hold it right there!” A young woman in a suit flew into the student council room.
“Ms. Kagurazaka?!” Sousuke exclaimed.
The woman—Sousuke’s homeroom teacher, Kagurazaka Eri—lurched against the doorframe, gasping for breath. It looked like she’d run all the way there from the first floor. “S-Sagara-kun. What are you about to do with that package?! Don’t tell me you’re going to try to detonate it like you always do...”
“I am, ma’am. It could be dangerous.”
“Don’t you dare!”
“One can never be too careful.”
“In this case, you absolutely can!” she shouted as she snatched the package away from Sousuke. She then cradled it gingerly in her hands, also as if dealing with a dangerous explosive.
“This is very important material sent by Mr. Koganei, a biologist who used to teach at our school. Last week, he called the teachers’ office and asked us to take care of it,” she explained. “It’s not hazardous in the slightest.”
“Aha.”
“I can’t believe they sent it to the student council room rather than the staff office! That was almost a disaster...” Eri breathed a sigh of relief.
Sousuke watched her carefully.
“Do you continue to have some kind of objection, Sagara-kun?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I would like to ask, just to be certain. Could this Koganei person be... compromised?”
Eri stared at him. “What?”
“You haven’t lost contact with him for an extended period of time?” Sousuke persisted. “He hasn’t demonstrated any particular ideological leanings?”
“I don’t think so...”
“He doesn’t have any family members struggling with money, with substance addiction, with suicide... or any other such issues?”
“No,” said Eri. “What in the world are you implying?”
“Well... even if he is a scholar and a former instructor here, every person has their price,” Sousuke told her.
“You...”
“Are you aware that a similar incident happened in Europe recently? Terrorists blackmailed a high government official over his past homosexual affairs and forced him to plant an explosive on the president’s dog. That was—”
“Enough!” said Eri, interrupting Sousuke’s earnest elaboration. “Why are you so suspicious of everything? Can’t you ever give people the benefit of the doubt?”
“I’m afraid not.” Sousuke thrust out his chest proudly. “The enemy will take advantage of any exceptions given.”
“For heaven’s sake...” With a deeply bitter expression, Eri began to open up the package, swiftly untying the cord and opening the lid to show him the contents. “You see? It’s not dangerous. Go on, look!”
Inside the box were ‘gai’—snails. Eight of them, sitting in half-melted ice water. Each was just a little bit smaller than a person’s fist, with several ‘horns’ protruding from its shell.
“Snails?”
“Yes. Snails.”
“They appear to be alive,” said Sousuke.
“Well, I should hope so!” Eri retorted. “These are extremely precious creatures, a species of snail called the Daiku Maryu King-gai.”
“That’s a very long and suspicious name,” Sousuke observed.
“They have a plain but elegant color and only live on Daiku Island in Nishi-Kyushu. They are extremely rare, but Mr. Koganei is an accomplished scholar in the field of malacology, and he’s allowed our principal to take a few on since we promised we’d take good care of them,” said Eri, looking down at the snails. They were a dull, semitranslucent green color—one might even say emerald green—with stripes of charcoal gray, like trailing clouds. They looked less like snails and more like some kind of mineral ore.
“If we take good care of them, they might grow as large as thirty centimeters,” she went on excitedly. “Though it’ll take them quite a while to reach that—”
Just then, a short chime sounded, and a message from the staff office rang through the school. “Ms. Kagurazaka. Ms. Kagurazaka. The aquarium you ordered from Nanbu Goods has arrived. Please come to the front gate at once. The aquarium you ordered from—”
“Oh, the aquarium’s here. I have to go get it,” said Eri, with a glance at Sousuke. She’d apparently gone so far as to buy special equipment in which to raise the snails. “Sagara-kun. Will you help me bring it inside? I don’t think I can carry it all by myself.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sousuke responded promptly.
The announcement rang out again, impatiently. “Ms. Kagurazaka. The delivery truck is blocking the road. Please come to the front gate at—”
“Oh, shoot. Better hurry.” The panicking Eri had been trying to close the Styrofoam box filled with snails packed in ice, but it was a fairly involved process, and she wasn’t having much luck. “Oh, forget it,” she exclaimed. “Let’s just leave it here for now.”
Sousuke frowned. “Are you certain of that? Didn’t you say they were valuable?”
“They’ll be fine for a few minutes. The greatest threat to them will be with me, after all. Now, let’s go!” Eri left the student council room, shooing Sousuke out with her. She closed the door tightly, leaving only the strange, precious snails behind in the now-empty room.
Three minutes later, the student council vice president, Chidori Kaname, poked her head in. She was a girl from Sousuke’s class and had long, black hair down to her waist, held in place by a trademark red ribbon. She had a symmetrical, strong-willed face, and very pretty features.
“Hey, folks! Oh, no one’s here...”
The room was empty. Normally, after class, there would be at least one person present, either watching TV or fooling around on the computer.
“Eh?” As Kaname entered the empty room, her eyes fell on the Styrofoam box lying on the large table. She removed the lid without a second thought and saw the snails inside. They appeared to be a gift from some middle school somewhere. “Oh, these are...” Kaname stared at them, entranced. She didn’t recognize the school’s name, but she had to say, they had good taste.
Typically, the gifts that other schools sent them were boring sculptures or paintings—usually something made by some local art teacher entitled “Sculpture of a Young Man,” “A Maiden’s Wish,” or some other cliché title, that they couldn’t sell in their home region. But this...
I can’t believe they sent us escargot! Kaname thought in delight.
Out loud, she exclaimed, “This is magnificent!” These were delicious sazae snails, still alive as far as she could tell. That means they’re fresh. Fresh from the source. Fresh from their birthplace. The smell of the rocky shore wafted into her nose. This is truly, truly—
Kaname found herself drooling and quickly gulped it back down. Then she tucked the box of snails under her arm, turned around, and flew out of the student council room. She was heading for the Home Ec room, where she would find a gas stove, a grill top, and plenty of soy sauce.
“Hora hora minna no koe ga suru...” she sang to herself, a skip in her step. Gotta act fast. When working with seafood, freshness is king!
“Heaven’s sake! Ridiculous!” Eri strode down the hall towards the student council room, fuming. They had finished carrying in the aquarium, and now they were heading to retrieve the snails they’d left behind. “Why don’t you ever think before you act? I warned you so many times!”
Sousuke was trailing behind her, seeming somehow triumphant despite the browbeating he was taking. “But I really am acting in the interests of your safety and that of the student body as a whole,” he told her earnestly. “I believe it’s important to exercise a minimum of safety precautions—”
Eri glared at him. “Is that any reason to hold the poor deliverymen at gunpoint and tickle them all over?!”
“It was a simple body check,” he told her. “I saw the two of them look at me, then share a meaningful glance.”
“They were clearly just surprised at seeing an ordinary high school student pull out a knife that large to open the package!”
“Is that it?”
“Yes, that’s it!”
Still arguing back and forth, they opened the door to the student council room and entered.
And there, they fell silent.
It was immediately clear that the snails—which should have been on the table—were now gone. The box they’d come in was gone as well without a trace.
There were quite a few students hanging around in the room now.
“Okada-kun. Did you see a package around here? It had snails inside,” Eri asked a young man, the treasurer.
“No. You seen it?” the treasurer asked the other two with a frown.
“I’m afraid not,” said the second-year secretary.
“I haven’t seen anything,” said the first-year in charge of equipment.
“How in the world...” Eri’s face grew visibly paler. Tears filled her eyes, and she began looking around the room in a panic.
“Shall I investigate?” Sousuke asked calmly.
“Yes, please! If anything happens to those snails—oh, I don’t even want to think about it! The principal will have my head!”
“We wouldn’t want that, I’m sure.”
“Yes... oh, please, God. Please... let those snails be okay...” Eri clasped her hands together and entreated the ceiling above.
But her prayers would go unanswered, as the eight snails were already bubbling deliciously on top of the mesh grill over the open flame. The addition of a tiny amount of soy sauce and sake made their aroma even more delicious.
Kaname was in the home economics room, where wine and sake were available for seasoning purposes. The home economics teacher was off today, and there was no one else present—in other words, she had the whole room to herself.
“Hee hee hee...” Gleefully, Kaname stabbed a piece of cooked snail with a toothpick and gave it a taste. It was nice and crisp, and exploded into juice with just the right amount of bitterness in her mouth. “Delicious!” She found herself poking at the shell again and again until she’d cleaned it out. She couldn’t help but sense a slight difference in the flavor between these and your typical sazae snails, but surely that was nothing to worry about. They were much better than the snails she bought at the local fishmonger, after all.
Kaname turned off the burner and left the room to call in the rest of the student council. She considered just bringing the cooked snails with her, but she was worried about the juice spilling out of the shells en route.
As she arrived at the hallway leading from the south school building to the northern one, she passed the treasurer, Okada Hayato. He was short and ruddy, with hair in dreadlocks and a clever air about him. He looked more like he belonged on the streets of Los Angeles than in Japan.
“Oh, Okada-kun. Perfect timing. Are you free?” She was about to ask him to call the others, but he quickly shook his head.
“No, I’m not free. I’m looking for something.”
“Looking for something?” she echoed.
“Yes. Hit up the student council room,” he suggested. “Sagara’s losing his mind.” With no elaboration, Okada Hayato walked away.
Tilting her head curiously, Kaname continued on to the student council room.
There was a sign posted on the door, written in large letters, in magic marker. The eye couldn’t help but be drawn to it.
Daiku Maryu King-gai Task Force HQ
“What the... What nonsense is he up to now?” she muttered to herself as she entered. Inside, she found Sagara Sousuke and her homeroom teacher, Kagurazaka Eri, poring over a large diagram of the school and exchanging hushed, serious conversation.
“Chidori,” Sousuke whispered as he cast a glance at her.
“What’s going on here? You both look so serious,” she asked.
Sousuke put a hand to his jaw. “Indeed. We appear to have run into an issue.”
“An issue?”
“Someone has made off with an extremely precious object,” he said. “I told Mikihara and Sasaki and the others to ask around, but...”
A precious object? “What kind of precious object?” Kaname asked casually.
Eri responded for him. “Snails. Eight of them. They were in a Styrofoam box.”
Kaname froze up for a moment. “I... I see.”
“They’re practically priceless,” Sousuke added in a serious voice. “Mr. Koganei, a leader in his field, sent them especially for our school to raise. They’re an extremely rare species on the brink of extinction.”
“I... I see...”
“We don’t know who could have stolen them, but if anything happens to those snails, the student responsible will be punished severely... What’s the matter, Chidori?” Noticing the greasy sweat rising on her forehead, Sousuke raised an eyebrow. “You look rather ill.”
“Do I? I don’t feel ill... I feel great. Seriously. Totally great,” she croaked out, her jaw as stiff as a marionette’s.
“Really? You seem to be acting strangely, to me.”
“No, no. I’m completely normal. Almost... abnormally normal. Ha ha ha... ha.”
“Hmm...” Sousuke stared at her penetratingly, but at last shook his head, “Very well. The focus of all our attention must be finding the Daiku Maryu King-gai, after all.” He folded his arms and turned his eyes back to the school diagram.
Kaname spoke up, hesitantly, “I... Where’s Hayashimizu-senpai?”
“The president is in the principal’s office. I informed him of the situation, and he went to explain things to her.”
“I... I see.”
“As head of school security and aide to the student council president, I’m devoting my full resources to the investigation,” he told her.
As Kaname said nothing in response, Sousuke turned his eyes away to resume his discussion with Eri. They were pointing at various places on the diagram, formulating a variety of theories. He was pointing out that they could have been thrown away in some trash can, the bathroom, or a potted plant, and she was wailing about how badly she hoped the snails were safe.
Meanwhile, Kaname leaned her back against the wall, eyes pointed downwards as she tried desperately to catch her breath.
Ahh, ahh... What will I do? she wondered desperately.
She’d had no idea the snails were that important and wondered if it might be better to simply admit to her crime and beg for forgiveness. Surely, they would show mercy on her then? It wasn’t as if she’d known. She had assumed they were simply edible sazae snails. There had been no malice behind it.
That’s right...
If she just said “I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” what would they all—the principal, Eri, Sousuke and Hayashimizu—say? They would ask her, patiently... “So, where are the precious snails that another school sent us to take care of?”
And then... and then she would have to admit that she ate them. That they were delicious.
I can’t tell them. I absolutely can’t tell them! Kaname shook her head, her face white as a sheet. Her punishment wouldn’t stop at a simple scolding and suspension. The incident would become the talk of the entire school. She could almost hear the voices of her classmates:
“Kana-chan, you must have been really hungry, huh?”
“Who just finds something lying around and eats it?”
“I bet you catch and cook neighborhood cats from time to time, too.”
They’d say all kinds of things, regardless of veracity, without any attempt at empathy. And she would be made to bear the cross of ‘gift-eater’ for the rest of her life. After they had already forced on her the title of Jindai High School’s ‘number one idol that you wouldn’t want to date!’ They would now combine them into ‘gift-eater that you wouldn’t want to date,’ and she’d sound like a monster.
No... I can’t take it! I’m only sixteen years old! I want to wear beautiful dresses and fall in love! ...is exactly the kind of silly overdramatic thing this situation makes me want to say... This is awful! she lamented to herself, grinding her forehead against the wall.
Just then, the treasurer she’d run into earlier, Okada Hayato, nearly broke the door down as he made a dramatic entrance to the student council room. “Emergency, Chief!”
“What is it, Okada?” Sousuke asked smoothly, as if he were Ishihara Yujiro, the actor famous for playing a police superintendent.
“We found bodies in the home economics room!”
Sousuke gasped. “How many?”
“Eight. All dead. It was a slaughter!” Okada exclaimed.
“I see,” Sousuke lamented. “We were too late, then...”
Hearing those words, Eri collapsed onto the desk, unconscious.
“Ma’am. Wake up, ma’am. Someone call a medic!” Sousuke shook his teacher’s shoulders.
Meanwhile, Kaname placed her hands over her face, as red as if she’d just gotten out of the bath, and slumped to her knees.
Snap! A flash of light illuminated the bodies on the table—the bodies of the Daiku Maryu King-gai, now rendered into escargot.
In the abandoned Home Ec room, they’d found a gas burner, soy sauce, chopsticks, a kitchen knife, toothpicks, and other objects used in the crime. They’d surrounded them all with chalk outlines and placed small cards next to them, each labeled with a letter of the alphabet. The young equipment manager, wearing an armband that read ‘Crime Scene Investigator,’ held a camera aloft as he walked around the table, capturing pictures of the carnage from every available angle.
Sousuke stood beside Kaname, scowling down at the escargot. “Estimated time of death, thirty minutes ago. The immediate cause of death was an icepick. The culprit used it to extract the bodies from the shells, chopped them up with a kitchen knife, then returned them to their shells to cook them. Truly cold-blooded,” said Sousuke, smoothly outlining the method of murder (which was also the recipe for making tsuboyaki-style escargot.)
Kaname watched him, glassy-eyed.
“The crime was definitely premeditated,” he went on. “The methodological MO suggests intent. But what in the world did the culprit have against snails?”
“Maybe they just really wanted to eat ’em?” the treasurer, Okada Hayato, whispered as he listened from behind.
Sousuke stood there for a while, silently, scrutinizing the cooked snails and the soy sauce bottle sitting beside them. “That is possible.”
“I mean, that’s definitely what it is?” the treasurer prompted him.
“No... That could be a red herring meant to throw us off the trail,” Sousuke decided. “Similar to when a murderer robs the home of a victim in order to draw attention away from more personal motives.”
The treasurer fell silent.
Sousuke, now chief of the task force for the Daiku Maryu King-gai investigation, folded his arms and sighed. “One way or another, these snails were murdered. We must find the culprit and bring them to justice.”
At this, Kaname spoke up again, timidly. “Are you... Are you going to try to find out who did it?”
“Of course we are,” he told her. “We’ll search every nook and cranny, find the one who murdered this precious gift, and make them regret what they’ve done.”
“Regret it... how?”
“A fine question. We will likely parade them around the school, then give them a public flogging, followed by execution.”
Kaname gulped.
“We may also wish to hang their body in front of the school gate for three days as an example to others.” Sousuke sounded completely serious.
Kaname took an unconscious half-step back. “Th-That... seems a little bit harsh. After all, we don’t know for certain that they had malicious intentions. It might be some kind of misunderstanding,” she said faintly.
Sousuke shook his head. “Unacceptable naivety from one of your high office. The motive is irrelevant—society couldn’t function if pleading ignorance was sufficient for acquittal.”
“I suppose... I suppose you’re right, but...”
“Blood must be answered in blood. This has been the tradition for thousands of years,” he said firmly, just before he began to pace around the home economics classroom, inspecting the scene.
“Ah, well... I’m heading out for a minute...” Kaname, dazed and limp, left the room behind.
She walked up to the nearby water fountain, taking a drink to soothe her parched throat. As she wet her lips, she racked her brain over what to do...
“Ka-na-me-chaaan...” The treasurer, Okada Hayato, arrived beside her at the fountain, grinning broadly.
“What is it?”
“You ate those snails, didn’t you?”
Kaname flinched. How did you know?! she wanted to ask, but she swallowed down the urge and looked away. “What... What in the world are you talking about?”
“Ha ha ha... Don’t play dumb with me. You had a toothpick in your mouth when I passed you in the hall. And you were coming from the home economics room.”
“Geh...”
“Plus, you’re the best cook in the student council. It all just clicked.”
“Argh...” She’d just begun to hope it was all over.
But Okada looked at her meaningfully and said, “Relax. I’m willing to not tell Sagara or the others.”
“What?”
“But only on one condition.” Okada raised his index finger.
“What’s... What’s the condition?” Kaname looked at him nervously and gulped.
The short-statured blackmailer smiled a smile that was far toothier than it needed to be. “Heh heh heh... I believe you have a CD autographed by JB. You got it when you lived in New York... It’s a very rare item.”
“Hrk!” said Kaname, her expression tensing up.
“I’d sure love to own it!” Okada declared brightly.
“N-No! That’s... that’s... that’s my life!”
“Is it really?”
“Of course it is!” Kaname exclaimed. “You can’t possibly expect me to...!”
“I understand... Then I’ll have to tell them everything.” Okada turned around, about to head back to the home economics room.
Kaname grabbed his arm. “Wait, Okada-kun.”
“What is it? You said you wouldn’t give it up, right?”
“I-Isn’t there anything else you want? A poster from when he performed in Japan, or—and I admit, this has nothing to do with anything—a Fumo-Fumo Bonta-kun doll? I’ve got lots of good stuff! Well? What about it?!” Kaname begged him.
Okada smiled. “Please,” he said pityingly. “I don’t want any of that crap.”
“C’mon, be flexible. Please! Take something else and spare me this torment!”
“No. Now, let me go.”
“Please don’t tell them. I really didn’t mean any harm!” Her eyes filled with tears, and she unconsciously gave his arm a good wrench... just as Okada slipped on the wet floor of the fountain area.
“What the—” He sailed through the air, did a half-flip, and—crack! A dull sound rang out as the back of Okada’s head hit the floor. He laid there, sprawled out and motionless.
“O-Okada-kun?” Kaname’s eyes went wide. She crouched down next to him, shaking him. But he simply lay there, silent except for the occasional groan of pain. There was no one else near the fountain. In other words... no witnesses.
Th-This means... She hadn’t meant to silence him. Yet somehow or other, someone who knew about her crime and was threatening to blackmail her was lying on the ground in front of her, motionless. Feeling almost like a murderer, Kaname looked around in a panic. What do I do? she fretted. Drag the body somewhere and bury it... No, no! I need to take him to the nurse’s office, explain the situation... No, I can’t do that! They’d know what I did!
Every second, footsteps from the home economics room drew nearer. They were still around the corner, though, and couldn’t see her yet.
“Okada-kun, Chidori. We’re about to bag the evidence. Could you help? Oh... where have they gone?” It was Sousuke. They’d been gone long enough that he’d come to check on them.
Geh, this isn’t good! Ah, what do I do? What do I do?! Confused and terrified by the strange chain of events, Kaname launched into a complete fit of hysteria. First, she tried dragging Okada away by the legs, then ran in Sousuke’s direction, then did a brief, spontaneous tap dance, then started removing her uniform, then stopped, then—
Whoosh! In the end, she opted to run off in the other direction. As she flew down the stairway, she could hear Sousuke’s voice behind her.
“Okada?! What’s wrong? Who got you? Speak to me! Okada—”
Repeating quiet but urgent apologies under her breath, Kaname brushed away her tears and kept running.
The sun was setting on the strange day after class, bathing the school building in its orange glow. On the athletic field, the baseball and soccer clubs finished their practices, and a saxophone from the brass band played a sorrowful melody from the roof.
Inside the student council room, Sousuke and six other student council members gathered around Kagurazaka Eri, who had finally recovered from her shock. Okada, the treasurer, was still sleeping in the nurse’s office, and student council president Hayashimizu hadn’t yet returned from the principal’s office.
Kaname was present as well. She looked terribly uncomfortable, with slumped shoulders and a permanently plaintive expression, but she’d responded to the call on the intercom and returned to the student council room from wherever she’d been hiding.
“Now, everyone,” declared Sousuke, who was wearing his task force chief armband. “Having concluded an investigation of the scene and interrogations, I have ascertained several things about the situation. The investigation itself was not without its own tragedies, but I believe I have finally ascertained the culprit in the murder of the Daiku Maryu King-gai.” Sousuke’s tone was calm, but at the same time, grave. “Now, as I mentioned before the investigation began, there were many things about the situation that suggested an inside job—in other words, that the culprit is someone inside this room. That is what my judgment and my instinct both tell me.”
While everyone else in the room just looked nervous, Kaname began shaking her head in agony.
“Someone in this room? Is that true, Sagara-kun?” Eri asked, just to be sure.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied gravely. “I find it unfortunate, but it is the only conclusion to which I can come.”
“So, who is the culprit?”
“Ma’am. The culprit is...”
The entire group leaned forward.
Sousuke waited a few moments, then pointed dramatically. “The culprit is—you, Ms. Kagurazaka!” he declared.
Three seconds passed. Nobody in the group reacted, including Eri herself. At last she said, “Excuse me?” while frowning, her head tilted to the side.
Sousuke nodded gravely, folded his arms, and embarked upon his lengthy explanation. “You very nearly had me fooled, ma’am. I should have realized it when you first told me to leave the snails behind. Why leave such precious snails in a room alone? When I began to really think about it, I realized that there was no good explanation.”
“Wait—”
“Yes,” he went on, completely overriding her objection. “In addition to you and I, there was one other person hidden in the student council room. A student with whom you conspired to murder the snails. That person was—”
“You are utterly—”
“—Okada. After all, his sixth period class is English, taught by you. With your permission, he could have easily been the first one into the student council room after school ended. But then you had a problem: I entered the room before you did. Okada quickly hid underneath a table—he must have become quite alarmed when he noticed I’d taken an interest in the package.”
“Wait a minute—”
“You managed to come running just in time, and once you’d cleverly lured me out of the room, Okada stole the snails, killed them, and then returned here, leaving the rest of us none the wiser,” Sousuke continued. “But once the investigation was underway, his conscience began to nag at him. He intended to turn himself in and finger you as the mastermind behind it all. And when you realized that—you mercilessly chose to silence him.”
“Why would you think that?!” she wailed.
“Okada was at the water fountain quenching his thirst when you snuck up behind him, and with a sadistic smile on your face, hit your own student in the back of the head with a blunt instrument—”
“This is absolutely outrageous!” Eri was finally rising from her seat, shouting. “I was asleep in the nurse’s office, remember? And your theory is completely full of holes!”
Sousuke paused. “Full of holes, you say?” Though he remained as expressionless as ever, sweat began to rise on Sousuke’s forehead. He looked at the equipment manager and the secretary as well as the accountant, who all nodded in unison.
“It seems a little forced.”
“I’m afraid it’s quite implausible.”
“She doesn’t even have a motive.”
In the face of their united front, Sousuke put a hand to his chin and hummed to himself thoughtfully.
It was then that Kaname, who had been silently looking at the floor the entire time, leaped to her feet. “For the love of... Enough!”
“Chidori?” Sousuke and the others present looked at her in surprise.
“I said I’ve had enough! What is the point of all this? I’m exhausted,” she sobbed. “I’m just exhausted! I don’t care what happens to me anymore!”
“What is it, Chidori? Where is this coming—”
Kaname mussed up her black hair as tears poured from her eyes. Her voice cracked as she delivered her shocking confession. “I... I’m the one who killed them!”
Her declaration stunned the entire group into silence, their eyes wide.
“What?!”
“Chidori-san? You...?!”
“Yes, it was me! I killed them! All eight of them! Some of them even fought back, yet I stabbed them with an icepick and chopped them up with a knife! I slaughtered them! All of them!” She trailed off into wordless sobbing and wailing, unable to go on.
“Impossible. Why would you do such a thing?” Sousuke, who never would have dreamed that Kaname was the culprit, advanced on her, his face pale.
“Because... Because...!” Kaname trembled as she sobbed.
“Why, Chidori? Why... Why did you kill them?!”
Suddenly, her tears stopped, and she said plainly, “Because they were delicious.”
●
Meanwhile, in the principal’s office, bathed in the same early evening light...
Jindai High’s principal, Tsuboi Takako, and its student council president, Hayashimizu Atsunobu, were sitting around a meeting table across from each other.
“But... Mr. Koganei really does cause a lot of trouble, doesn’t he, ma’am?” Hayashimizu asked as he busily worked his chopsticks.
“Yes, he truly does. He used to be such an intelligent man, too... but he seems to be growing forgetful in his old age,” the principal said, likewise working her chopsticks. “I can’t believe he sends ordinary sazae snails as ‘a newly discovered species’ or ‘a species on the verge of extinction’ every year. We don’t even ask for them!”
“He sent some to the student council room this year as well,” Hayashimizu pointed out. “It appears Ms. Kagurazaka is having a bit of a time about them.”
“Oh, is she? I do believe she was the one who took the phone call from Mr. Koganei last week. It’s fine, though. I hope they enjoy them together.” The principal let out your standard middle-aged woman’s laugh.
Hayashimizu shared her laugh with a pleasant chuckle. “I am quite enjoying them myself already.” He poked at a snail merrily bubbling away on the tabletop burner. Following the naming scheme Mr. Koganei had given them, they called them ‘Daiku Maryu King-gai escargot.’ “Yes, they are truly delicious. I’d love a warm sake with them. Some Kuroushi from Wakayama, perhaps...”
“Rather than objecting to your intemperance, I’d prefer to ask why a high school student has such old man tastes...” the principal whispered to herself without any malice.
〈Who Killed Cock Robin (of the Rocky Shores)? - The End〉
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