The New York Cheesecake Mystery (Part 6) | Contents | The New York Cheesecake Mystery (Part 8)
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The timbre of multiple instruments reached their peak, marking an end to the song. Applause could be heard from the gymnasium.
“I…”
After receiving the CD that was still a little warm, Kogi-san held it up to the sky.
“I thought that Yuki-chan-senpai attached the CD to a balloon and sent it up in the air.”
“Ahaha.”
It was interesting, but that method would not allow for retrieval of the CD. Osanai-san must have simply let go of the balloons during the collision.
“In any case, we can help Yuki-chan-senpai if we pass this CD to those three boys, right?”
With Kogi-san asking that question, I could tell that I had earned a bit of her trust… It pained me that I would probably end up betraying that trust.
“No way.”
I shook my head, causing Kogi-san’s eyes to widen.
“Osanai-san would be sad if we did that. If she wanted to hand over the CD like that, she could have done it on her own.”
“But that could be because she didn’t want to immediately hand over something that was entrusted to her…”
“It’ll be the same thing if we give up the CD. For what purpose do you think Osanai-san hid the CD in the fire and allowed herself to get caught?”
And to top it all off, why did she call me?
As Kogi-san hemmed and hawed in response, I made an assertion.
“Osanai-san was buying time. She hoped that I would find the CD with that time.”
“Why?”
“To check the contents of the CD, of course!”
Osanai-san was asked to hold onto the CD by the first-year boy, who was subsequently chased down and assaulted by the trio. At that point, her gift of marshmallows had already been ruined, the two balloons she’d received knocked up into the air, and finally, her prospects of eating another New York cheesecake before leaving looked to be going down the drain. She did not have enough discipline as a petit bourgeois to obediently hand over the CD.
The CD contained someone’s secrets. Wanting to find out about those secrets probably lies within the bounds of healthy curiosity. I’m not sure about using those secrets to exact revenge for her marshmallows and cheesecake, though.
“…I see.”
Kogi-san vacantly muttered.
Kogi-san admired Osanai-san as an elder sister who had similar interests. She might have experienced her sharpness first-hand during the incident with the macarons, but even I could tell while watching from the side that she thought Osanai-san to be adorable. But now, she’d caught a glimpse of her methods. Did she get a shock from that…?
“That’s my Yuki-chan-senpai!”
“Huh?”
“That’s right. Those three boys are clearly delinquents. Since they’re searching for it, the CD must contain records of their wrongdoings! She put her body on the line so that the evidence isn’t destroyed! Yuki-chan-senpai is really amazing!”
With the sparkles returned to her eyes, Kogi-san put her two fists in front of her mouth, as if she was struggling to withstand the strong surge of emotions from within.
Hmm, I suppose what she said was not wrong. The gang of three were certainly violent if nothing else, the CD probably contained some information that would be inconvenient to them, and Osanai-san gave herself up as a decoy so that the CD would not fall into their hands. All of those points should have hit the mark, so what was this subtle feeling that something was off…
“If so, then let’s go!”
“L-Let’s go?”
It was the first time I’d heard someone actually use the words “Let’s go” in speech.1
“I know someone in the computer club. If we let him handle it, we can watch any videos on the CD and even make copies. Let’s go!”
The Computer Club room was located somewhere in some school building. Being the last spurt of the Cultural Festival, it was unbearably crowded, and it was all I could do to follow Kogi-san, so I unfortunately lost my bearings midway. I guessed that we were on the third floor, but we could have very well been on the fourth.
The door to a room that looked like a repurposed empty classroom was ajar, and next to the door was a sign that read, “Revival of the Famicom”, but pasted on top was a piece of paper that said, “It has become unresponsive, so we are closed.” In other words, the Computer Club members were free, and we would be able to easily ask a favor of them.
Although he was still a middle school student, Kogi-san’s acquaintance from the Computer Club was a head taller than me, had a wide frame and was narrow towards the waist; an imposing man with an impressive physique. He sported an intimidating face, but had gentle mannerisms, even showing us to our seats and serving us barley tea. Additionally, he was the only Computer Club member who had remained in the club room. After hearing the situation and Kogi-san’s request to play the CD, he smiled.
“Sure thing!”
What a good person.
“A desktop is used for presentations, but you can use a notebook for something as simple as playing a CD.”
“I see. Well then, if you please.”
As Kogi-san handed over the CD, a puzzled look appeared on the Computer Club member’s face.
“…This CD’s kinda warm, isn’t it?”
Indeed, the CD was still warm, but the notebook read it without any problems as Kogi-san stared at the screen uneasily. Perhaps she was unfamiliar with computers.
“How is it?”
“It’s totally normal. As for what’s inside… there’s a video file named ‘Autumn Training Camp’. It’s only four minutes long. Quite a waste only that’s stored in the CD. Should I play it?”
Kogi-san nodded, and the video promptly started playing.
Projected on the screen was a wide space covered in tatami flooring, on which about ten males clad in dogi2 were standing.
“…Karate?”
The Computer Club member muttered, but we could immediately tell that was not the case based on what happened on screen. They grappled, shook and threw each other. It was the scene of a Judo practice session. Kogi-san piped up.
“That’s our Judo club, right?”
The free practice continued on silently. At some point, a tall boy wearing a black belt started grappling with another boy who was about two thirds his size and whose facial features made him look really young.
“Hey, is there no sound?”
Kogi-san asked, and the Computer Club member went “Oops” as he deactivated the mute function on the notebook computer.
A loud voice immediately reverberated throughout the room.
“Show some spirit! Louder, louder, louder! C’mon, shout louder! Show that you’re serious!”
I instinctively pulled away, while Kogi-san, who had her face close to the screen, let out a shriek.
“Ah, my bad.”
Wincing, the Computer Club member turned down the volume.
The Judo Club member on the monitor who was told to shout louder desperately raised his voice. However, he might not have even gone through a voice change yet, for it was high-pitched and soft. He gripped the collar and sleeves of the black belt holder who looked like a upperclassman and tried shaking him, but the difference in size was too great.
“Use more strength! Be serious! Louder! C’mon, louder, louder, louder! I told you to shout louder! You looking down on me?!”
With a shout that sounded more like a scream, the boy hit his opponent’s body, apparently trying to execute a move, but as expected, his opponent stood upright, not even wavering a little.
“Put in some technique! What’s the point of recording if you’re going to be like this!”
The black belt holder yelled, and in the next moment…
“I told you to show some spirit!”
The black belt holder gave an exceptionally loud roar and swung the smaller boy around. I didn’t know what the move was called, but the underclassman was thrown in such a vibrant manner that it was as if he’d done a jump, then landed on the ground with a heavy-sounding thud.
“Oi, don’t you dare fall asleep! Can you take responsibility if the team loses because of you? Recognize your responsibility! Oi, wake up! Why don’t you go home if you don’t even wanna try? Are you gonna quit? Oi, I asked, are you gonna quit!”
However, the fallen boy remained lying flat on his back on the tatami flooring, not even trying to get up. If anything, he didn’t even move.
“Um, senpai…”
A nearby club member said timidly and vaguely raised his hand. However, the one addressed as senpai didn’t look at him, instead turning his back and walking a few steps to the boy who had collapsed.
“Don’t you dare slack off!”
Just when I thought he was about to turn around, he stepped on the collapsed boy’s chest and released a menacing roar.
“Hii!” I could hear a voice, but that probably originated from Kogi-san. At the same time, a dull, unpleasant sound came from the speakers, and a scream erupted from the collapsed boy. The screen also shook violently, conveying the agitation felt by the person recording the video.
The Judo Club member addressed as senpai raised his foot, ready to stomp down again. The boy lying on the floor weakly raised his arms, trying to protect his body. Even from the video you could tell that his face looked pale.
“Senpai! This is bad!”
The other club member’s voice must have finally reached his ears, for he put down his foot.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
Multiple people rushed to the collapsed boy, and one of them called out.
“Bring him to the infirmary! Also call a teacher, he might have broken some bones!”
The boy addressed as senpai stood still for a moment, seemingly in a bad mood, but eventually noticed the camera and moved towards it.
“Oi! How long are you gonna record this for! Stop it now!”
The screen shook fiercely a second time, then faded to black.
“I’ve heard the rumors.”
The Computer Club member said.
“The Judo Club’s coach was someone who gave careful guidance, and under him they became strong. However, he quit last year, so now the Judo Club doesn’t have a coach. Their club advisor knows nothing about Judo, so he hardly shows up to practice. As a result, the upperclassmen started a strict training regime, but if only that was all…”
“I’ve also heard about it.”
Kogi-san chimed in.
“I heard that accidents kept occurring. Even in this Cultural Festival, they were supposed to showcase a practice match, but it was cancelled due to an injury.”
The Computer Club member checked the details of the video.
“This was taken last week. Is this the injury that caused them to cancel their practice match?”
Not being able to get up after being thrown is a possibility for those who practice martial arts. One could lose consciousness after failing to break their fall properly.
On the other hand, causing an injury by stepping on someone that had already collapsed could not be said to be a training accident. It was a scandal.
With that, I could roughly understand the events that transpired today.
“The Judo Club were filming their practice session to check their movements, but they ended up recording such a scene. We don’t know if it was the person who recorded the video, but someone in the club thought of showing it to people on the outside.”
“To complain about the training?”
Kogi-san asked.
“Probably. That person wanted to let others know that the Judo Club had devolved to such a state. Since today is the Cultural Festival, people from outside the school are here, so perhaps they wanted to screen it somewhere to a lot of people. Even if they weren’t able to do something so daring, they could have planned to show it to the school principal, but some members happened to discover those plans today.”
“In any case, it was discovered that someone brought out the recorded video.”
“This school’s Judo Club is participating in the Autumn Tournament. There must be some members who think that it will be problematic if the video is made public before the tournament. That’s why it became a game of tag.”
“And the first-year student who was being chased collided into Yuki-chan-senpai…”
That would make the three boys who chased after the first-year student Judo Club members as well. Osanai-san had gotten caught up in some infighting.
Kogi-san held her head and placed her elbows on the table.
“Now that we’ve seen this… we can’t hand it to them. But we need to help Yuki-chan-senpai…”
“Who’s Yuki-chan-senpai?”
For some reason, the Computer Club member directed his question at me.
“Ah, she’s my friend, and she’s currently being held captive by the Judo Club. They mistakenly believe that she has this CD.”
The Computer Club member’s eyes widened.
“…Isn’t that seriously terrible?”
I wonder about that.
It would indeed be an extremely dangerous situation if the trio were just delinquents, but that was not the case. Now, how should I explain it?
“Let’s make a deal with the Judo Club!”
All of a sudden, Kogi-san sat up and exclaimed.
“We’ll use the school PA system to tell them to return Yuki-chan-senpai in exchange for the CD. Of course, we’ll make a copy of it, and, and…”
But at that moment, a voice rang out.
“There’s so need for that!”3
I whirled around to see a girl leaning on the open door, her arms folded and a defiant smile on her face. Each of us had a different response.
The Computer Club member yelled, “Who are you!”
Kogi-san cheered, “Yuki-chan-senpai!”
I quipped, “You mean ‘There’s no need for that’, right?”
Osanai-san gave a deep nod while maintaining that defiant smile, then corrected herself in a lower, calmer voice.
“There’s no need for that.”
The New York Cheesecake Mystery (Part 6) | Contents | The New York Cheesecake Mystery (Part 8)
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