Yesterday, I found traces of a duplicate key on the archive lock. The culprit is outside. Jinshi didn't do it. Mao Mao confirmed that conclusion in her head while pedaling her bicycle. She passed the bus stop in front of Koushi Academy and went through the school gate. The sky was still overcast, and the large ginkgo tree in the courtyard stood hazy in the morning air. Two more days until the Koushi Festival. ──── Three minutes into morning homeroom, the classroom air changed. Homeroom teacher Miyake-sensei set down the attendance book with a slightly troubled expression. "[serious]At yesterday's staff meeting, Kataoka-sensei, the club advisor, mentioned that if the documents aren't submitted by the deadline, it'll be difficult to hold the Koushi Festival" A murmur rippled through the room. "Wait, seriously?" "They're canceling it?" "No way." The girl in the front seat spoke in a low voice to her neighbor while looking at her smartphone. "[whispers]Maybe he really was embezzling. I mean, there's even video evidence" "[whispers]That's our cultural festival budget though" Mao Mao looked out the window at the large ginkgo tree. Until yesterday, a third-year girl had been saying to Jinshi in the hallway, "The student council president is so cool, isn't he?" Today she was talking in a hushed voice: "Isn't this seriously bad?" The speed at which people change direction is like a chemical reaction. With a catalyst, it happens in an instant. (Not that it's interesting, in any sense.) Mao Mao held her pencil and listened to the classroom's murmuring. ──── During break, it happened in the hallway. Four third-year boys stood in front of Jinshi. Jinshi stood in the middle of the hallway, his back perfectly straight. His usual posture. But something was different. "Because of you, the cultural festival's getting canceled" "Take responsibility and quit" "You were saying something about 87 percent of the vote, what was that about anyway" The three boys spoke in turns. Jinshi's face didn't move. "[cold]I didn't do it" His voice was slightly hoarse. Mao Mao listened from the edge of the hallway. Vocal cord tension. His breath control was just slightly off. Fear—that state was showing in his body, and Mao Mao recognized it through sound. (This person is scared.) Something caught in her chest. Something small and nameless. "There's evidence, we're telling you" "You saw the video" At that moment, Mao Mao noticed that the backpack of the loudest boy had its zipper completely open. And its contents were slowly falling onto the hallway floor. An eraser. A pencil. A folded printout. None of them noticed. Mao Mao saw that sight and felt the weight of the situation lighten just a little. She couldn't explain why. ──── At lunch, Rihaku was standing in front of the student council room. Pure white hair. Right eye blue, left eye silver—odd eyes. His face looked gentle, but his eyes were a slightly different color today. He found Mao Mao and opened his mouth. "[gentle]Mao Mao" "What is it" Rihaku paused for a moment. The kind of pause when searching for words, Mao Mao thought. "[cold]Stay by Jinshi's side. He's in the infirmary" His voice was gentle. It sounded like the words of someone worried about a friend. But his gaze dropped for just an instant. Mao Mao didn't miss that 0.5 seconds. (There's something complicated in his feelings.) "[serious]Understood" She answered only that and headed to the infirmary. She didn't have the composure to check Rihaku's back, but she knew precisely what he wasn't doing. ──── When she opened the infirmary door, Jinshi was alone on the bed. He was sitting, looking at the floor. His long jet-black hair fell over his shoulders. His deep crimson eyes didn't move even when Mao Mao entered. Mao Mao stood in the middle of the room. Silence. The smell of disinfectant. The faint scent of houttuynia from under the bed. "[cold]……Why'd you come" "[serious]Rihaku asked me to" "I see" Jinshi looked at the floor again. Mao Mao pulled over the round stool next to him and sat down. She didn't say anything in particular. There were no words that needed to be said right now. After a while, Jinshi spoke in a hoarse voice. "[sad]……Why can you say for certain that I'm not the culprit" Mao Mao looked at his profile. His eyes were slightly red underneath. Either from crying or from holding back tears. A person with high pride in that state. This wasn't a situation that needed the words "You'll be fine," Mao Mao judged. "[serious]Because your face is too good-looking to deliberately ruin your own reputation" Jinshi looked up. "[serious]The cost-benefit doesn't add up. You have no motive" Two seconds. Three seconds. Jinshi tried to say something and stopped. "[sarcastic]……You're really a strange one" He laughed bitterly. That laugh was slightly twisted, and the corners of his eyes glistened faintly. Mao Mao felt a painful sensation around her chest. (He's about to cry.) Not painful so much as heavy. A sensation of something sinking deep in her chest. She tried to analyze what it was, but couldn't classify it properly. Her herbal database didn't have a corresponding entry for this sensation. At that moment, the infirmary door opened. ──── Rakan-sensei came in with both hands shoved in the pockets of her white coat. A part-time health instructor with a doctorate in pharmacology—an unusual teacher. She only comes three days a week. Today was Friday. Rakan looked back and forth between Jinshi on the bed and Mao Mao sitting on the round stool, and raised the corner of her mouth. "[sarcastic]The document situation's getting interesting, huh" Jinshi looked up. "[cold]If you know something——" "[sarcastic]Well, don't rush. You two aren't stupid" With just that, Rakan left, hands still in her white coat pockets. The door closed quietly. Mao Mao organized her thoughts in her head once Rakan's back was out of sight. (She has information. But she's not moving. Either there's no profit in it, or there's a reason she can't move.) Jinshi muttered. "[sarcastic]That teacher always says something cryptic and does nothing" "[serious]It's like a drugstore sample distribution. No actual contents" Jinshi looked at her. There was a pause. About five seconds. Then finally he said, "……I'm not sure if that comparison works or not," and smiled a little. This time, it was a better smile than before. Mao Mao decided to confirm something about Rakan with Rihaku later. That teacher knows something. ──── After school, she headed to Chemistry Experiment Room B in the East Building. The afternoon light streaming through the hallway windows had grown long. When she put her hand on the door, it wasn't locked. (That's strange. I locked it when I left.) She opened the door. The smell was different. Not the usual chemicals and dust. Something else was mixed in. She looked at the shelves. All the dried herb bags were gone. She looked at the experiment table. The handwritten experiment notebook was gone. She looked at the wall. Several printed papers were taped there. "Poison mushroom girl, get out of this school" Mao Mao didn't move. She stood there for about five seconds, looking at the papers on the wall. Her expressionless face crumbled. Visibly. Not anger. Not sadness. Not fear. The fact that someone was seriously trying to drive her away from this place had fallen into her body. That was all. Just that the weight was heavier than she'd thought. Mao Mao slowly approached the trash can. The dried herb bags were shoved inside. She pulled one out and checked it—the lid had been opened. They'd checked the contents before throwing it away. Not an accident. Intentional. She crouched down and pulled out all the bags. One by one. Taking them from the trash, packing them into the cloth bag she'd brought. Some could be reused. Even the unusable ones could become raw materials for something. There was no reason to leave them in the trash. Then she heard running footsteps in the hallway. ──── The door burst open. Jinshi was there. His breathing was slightly ragged. He wasn't carrying documents or anything. He'd just run straight here on his way. That's what his appearance said. "[worried]I heard the experiment room got hit. You okay" Mao Mao looked at Jinshi's face for one second. Then her gaze returned to the herb bags in her hands. "[serious]The herbs can be reused. The notebook contents are in my head. No problem" Jinshi took a step into the room. He saw the papers on the wall. His deep crimson eyes narrowed. "[cold]……That's not what I meant" He started to say something and stopped. The words—whether you're hurt—wouldn't come out. He didn't know how to say them. Not a matter of pride or wanting to look cool. He just realized he didn't know how to say words like that. He stood silently next to Mao Mao. Mao Mao packed the last one into the cloth bag and stood up. Without looking at Jinshi's face, she spoke. "[serious]Can I ask you something" "What" "[serious]Are the materials to make fluorescent powder available in the chemistry experiment room" Jinshi stopped. "[surprised]……What are you thinking" "[serious]It's a trap to catch the culprit" Mao Mao turned to face Jinshi for the first time. "[serious]Medicine and poison are the same thing—it depends on how you use them" Her voice was quiet. Almost no emotion in it. But to Jinshi, it was the straightest words he'd heard all day. The same weight as when she'd said "the cost-benefit doesn't add up" in the infirmary. Something different entered Jinshi's eyes. ──── The two of them went out to the courtyard. At the base of the large ginkgo tree, ginkgo leaves had accumulated. The evening light stretched long, and the tree's shadow cut diagonally across the courtyard's stone pavement. Mao Mao picked up a single leaf. Yellow. A beautiful yellow, she thought. That was all. She had a memory from childhood, in the medicinal herb garden with her grandmother. Her grandmother had stroked Mao Mao's head with dirt-covered hands and said: Medicine and poison come from the same plant. It depends on how you use them. That voice and Jinshi's face from the infirmary today somehow lined up in the same outline in Mao Mao's head. She didn't know why they lined up. Things without reason, she shelved them. "[serious]I have a rough idea of the materials. What's left is choosing where to set it up and reading when the culprit will move next" Jinshi stood beside her. After a brief pause, he spoke in a low voice. "[cold]I'll help" "Is that necessary" "[cold]It is" No hesitation. Mao Mao stood holding a single leaf and thought for a moment. It would be more efficient to do it alone. But there was the archive lock problem. Access to Advisor Kataoka. Movements only Jinshi could make. "[serious]Then I'll ask you to" The ginkgo's shadow stretched long. The sky slowly turned orange. In a distant hallway window, white hair was visible. Rihaku stood there. Just watching Mao Mao and Jinshi standing side by side in the courtyard. His distant face was unreadable. In his pocket, it looked like he was gripping something. Mao Mao didn't notice. Jinshi might have noticed, but said nothing.