Chapter 65 Spreading

Wakaba pointed at Chihaya Sao. "Ask her. I'm her boss; since when does a boss accompany a subordinate to dinner and have to foot the bill?"

"B-but I don't have any money on me," Chihaya Sao said with a bitter expression.

"If you don't have money, figure it out yourself. Your head is on your shoulders to think, not just to serve as decoration." Without finishing her sentence, Wakaba turned and walked away.

Leaving Chihaya Sao standing there all alone.

"Hehehe~, little lady, how about you have a drink with uncle? Uncle will give you money, what do you say?" A nearby middle-aged man, reeking of alcohol, squeezed in close.

His remark startled the people around them, who then quickly chimed in.

"Little lady, me too! Keep me company for a drink, and this bill is yours."

Chihaya Sao's head was still spinning.

"Senior is right... when you encounter difficulties, you have to find a way yourself..."

She bit her lip. Though she felt a lingering reluctance inside, she still nodded toward the white-collar workers.

...

The bustling commercial district in the north of the city.

In Ketsuchigawa-cho, a towering skyscraper pierced the clouds, its aviation warning lights blinking rhythmically at the top like stars in the night sky.

Surrounding the building, gigantic holographic projections slowly rotated, morphing into various shapes.

Inside a lavish room on the top floor, the atmosphere was oppressive, as if a heavy boulder were pressing against one's chest.

A man sat with his legs crossed, leaning back into a genuine leather armchair, his features obscured in shadow.

"What does the Security Bureau say?" the man asked the palm-sized holographic projection hovering above the desk.

The figure's face was indistinct, but judging by her curvaceous silhouette, she was a stunning woman.

The woman's voice was respectful. "They claim that due to the summer heat and aging electrical wiring, the villa of Young Master Takeshi..."

"Enough," the man interrupted. "What have you found out?"

The woman paused for a moment before speaking. "The faction that carried out the deed used ruthless and clean methods; the fire consumed every single trace... However, the Core Brain cross-referenced Young Master Takeshi's interpersonal network and analyzed eighty-seven suspicious individuals, ranked by probability from highest to lowest. Please review them."

On the holographic interface over the desk, a half-meter-long list materialized in mid-air, with every name followed by their identity and the estimated probability of a murder motive...

The man merely glanced at the list without examining the details. "Eliminate all eighty-seven people on the list, and let this matter rest."

Hearing this, the woman hesitated slightly. "Most of them can be eliminated without issue, but among them are the identities of illegitimate children belonging to some prominent figures..."

"It doesn't matter." The man clenched both fists and pressed them against the desk, a sharp, fierce glint flashing in his eyes. "In this city of Setsukawa, apart from those few people, there is no one whose illegitimate child I cannot kill."

"Understood, sir," the woman said respectfully.

She closed the list and terminated the communication.

Wakaba's name was not on that list. Because the Core Brain calculated based purely on established facts and logic, it had not factored in the possibility that Wakaba would proactively eliminate the root of the problem.

Had Wakaba delayed her actions by a few days, Mizuno Hirosuke's sister would have asked her husband to launch an investigation or even target Wakaba.

In that scenario, a weak connection would have formed between Wakaba and Tani Takeshi, and while the Core Brain might not have immediately pegged her as the killer, her name would certainly have appeared on the current list.

Therefore, Wakaba's foresight was correct. Striking first to wipe out Tani Takeshi effectively shielded her identity, buying her crucial time at the very least.

...

Several days passed in the blink of an eye.

Wakaba continued to attend classes by day and mentor Chihaya Sao at night, urging her to push forward and become a better version of herself.

Sakai First High School.

As the final examinations drew closer, the atmosphere within the school naturally grew tense.

"Hey, Shiratori, have you heard?" Fujii Asaka tapped Wakaba on the shoulder on the teaching building's stairwell.

"Heard what?" Wakaba asked, puzzled.

"It's about Mizuno Hirosuke from the baseball club..." Fujii Asaka said, pausing deliberately for dramatic effect.

Seeing that Wakaba remained utterly indifferent, she stuck out her tongue. "...He's dead."

"What?!" Wakaba widened her eyes in feigned shock. "How did he die?"

"A gas leak at his home caused a fire, and he burned to death. I heard it happened right at midnight while his family was fast asleep. Because they inhaled too much toxic gas, they died without even a chance to escape," Fujii Asaka recounted, sighing deeply. "Sigh, to think he was a living, breathing person just days ago, and now he's just a corpse."

"Indeed. Although I had a bit of a dispute with him back then, men often become friends through clashes, and I was actually hoping to get closer to him afterward... Ah~~, who could have predicted that worldly affairs are so unpredictable, and people change so fast." Wakaba sighed profoundly.

Fujii Asaka: "..."

Reason told her that Shiratori Jitsu was talking complete nonsense, but... recalling Shiratori Jitsu's string of bizarre and unreliable behavior lately, she half-suspected that the girl might genuinely think that way.

They arrived together at the classroom, which was already bustling with students discussing the fall of the baseball prodigy, Mizuno Hirosuke.

"...I heard the baseball club even hung up a banner mourning the meteor-like fall of a genius."

"I saw it too. But seriously, are the baseball club members actually mourning? Now that Mizuno Hirosuke is dead, hasn't the recommendation slot opened up?"

"Hey, how can you think like that? We're all classmates; it's not as dirty as you make it out to be..."

"My bad, my bad..."

Soon, the bell rang for the start of class, and the first-period literature class was replaced with a homeroom meeting.

"Everyone quiet down, open your computers. The principal is going to make an important speech regarding summer fire prevention. Keep the noise down!" Their homeroom teacher, Nonaka Daisuke, spoke in his usual lazy tone.

"Yes," the class chorused.

The students looked unenthusiastic as they opened the computers on their desks. After waiting for over ten minutes, the principal's face appeared on the screen and began a lengthy, endless speech...

Time slowly trickled away—first period, the skipped recess, and into the second period.

"Excuse me, could Shiratori from this class step outside for a moment?" While the students were listlessly watching the principal's speech on their screens, a knock sounded at the door of Class 2-6.

Everyone looked up and saw the director of guidance, Kojima Akio.

Trailing right behind him were a male and a female security officer.

The scene was all too familiar. Back when Hatada Rie went missing, security officers had also come looking for Shiratori Jitsu.

Are they here again?

"Could Hatada-san's disappearance finally be resolved?" the students could not help speculating inwardly.

Wakaba kept her expression completely composed as she stood up and, just like last time, followed the guidance director to his office.

"Where were you at eight o'clock on the evening of July 2nd?" Inside the guidance director's office, Shibata Yoshiko stared sharply into Wakaba's eyes as she asked the question.

The smart glasses she wore were connected to the central intelligence brain at the Security Bureau. Utilizing the processing power transmitted to her device, she ran real-time micro-expression and lie-detection analyses on Wakaba.